Opportunity Beckons For Dallas Stars, Again

Oct 21, 2014; Dallas, TX, USA; Dallas Stars goalie Kari Lehtonen (32) is named the number one star after the game against the Vancouver Canucks at the American Airlines Center. Lehtonen makes 46 saves. The Stars defeated the Canucks 6-3. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

Tonight the Dallas Stars will travel to Western Canada to take on the Vancouver Canucks. The Stars will look to build some momentum on the road after their three game homestand. The Canucks will attempt to get back on track after losing four straight games. The game will be nationally broadcast in Canada on all Sportsnet channels. Locally the broadcast will be carried on FoxSports-Southwest with puck drop scheduled for 9pm CST.

Records

The Dallas Stars head out on the road for a three game Western Canada road swing after completing a three game homestand where they finished 2-1-0. The Stars defeated the New Jersey Devils on Saturday night by a score of 4-3. Tyler Seguin notched his league-leading 23^rd goal of the season and Kari Lehtonen made 28 saves for his eleventh win of the season. The Stars currently sit 9 points out of the final playoff spot in the Western Conference.

The Vancouver Canucks stormed out of the gate and surprised a lot of people with their early season success. Free agent signing Ryan Miller was on fire for the first part of the season, but has since cooled off. Coinciding with Miller’s recent struggles, the Canucks team as a whole have also struggled. They have dropped four straight games while being outscored 17-7 in that span. Their latest defeat came at the hands of the New York Rangers by a score of 5-1.

Opportunity Beckons For Stars, Again

The Dallas Stars struggles have been well documented throughout this season thus far. However, the Stars have started to put together better team efforts in the past couple weeks. They have won 2 of their past 3 games and are 5-5 in their past 10. This .500 winning percentage is not something the Stars wish to carry throughout the rest of the season; however it can be viewed as the start of something better. The Stars went through an early season stretch of losing eight of ten, which included a season-high six game losing streak. Now, the Stars are playing .500 level hockey and have the chance to take the next step and build a winning streak before the holiday break. They embark on the 3-game Western Canada road trip where they will face three struggling hockey teams. The Canucks have lost 4 in a row, the Flames have lost 6 in a row, and the Oilers…. well they are the Oilers. (Losers of 12 of their past 13). The Stars have struggled all season long when faced with the chance to snap out of their season long funk. Will this road trip be a turning point? It certainly has the chance to be.

Canucks Recent Slump Mirroring Stars

The Vancouver Canucks have lost their past four games and have given up 17 goals in that span. Goaltender Ryan Miller has been average at best by going 1-3 in his past 4 starts by sporting a 4.10 goals against average and .887 save percentage.  The Dallas Stars have struggled a lot like the Canucks have. These two teams have been plagued by inconsistent play by their top lines as well as a porous defence. The Canucks come into this game with an identical goals per game statistic as the Stars at 2.9, a faceoff percentage that is 1.5 percentage less than the Stars, as well as a shots for average that is 3 shots better than the Stars. These two teams have strikingly similar statistics but the Canucks sit 11 points ahead of Dallas because their main advantage in goals against per game. The Canucks are giving up an average of 2.83 goals per game while the Stars are giving up 3.52 goals per game.

Projected Lineups

Dallas Stars

Jamie Benn- Jason Spezza- Tyler Seguin

Antoine Roussel- Cody Eakin- Ales Hemsky

Curtis McKenzie- Travis Morin- Erik Cole

Shawn Horcoff- Vernon Fiddler- Colton Sceviour

Alex Goligoski- John Klingberg

Jyrki Jokipakka- Trevor Daley

Jordie Benn- Jason Demers

Kari Lehtonen (Expected Starter)
Anders Lindback

Vancouver Canucks

Daniel Sedin- Henrik Sedin- Radim Vrbata

Chris Higgins- Nick Bonino- Alexandre Burrows

Shawn Matthias- Brad Richardson- Linden Vey

Derek Dorsett- Bo Horvat- Jannik Hansen

Alex Edler- Chris Tanev

Luca Sbisa- Kevin Bieksa

Ryan Stanton- Yannick Weber

Eddie Lack (Expected Starter)
Ryan Miller

Prediction

Stars break out of their season long funk and start a winning streak before the holiday break. They take down the Canucks 4-2 and send them to their fifth consecutive loss. This win propels the Stars to a very successful road trip where they will gain 5 of 6 points.