Dallas Stars Aim To Start First Winning Streak Of 2016 vs. Avs
By Josh Clark
The Dallas Stars will look to keep themselves in the win column tonight when they face off with the Colorado Avalanche at home.
After fending off the Edmonton Oilers in a heated 3-2 duel on Thursday night, the Dallas Stars are at home once again and looking for more. They will take on the Colorado Avalanche tonight, looking both to start their first win streak of the 2016 year and beat the Avs for the first time in over two years.
The game will be broadcasted on Fox Sports Southwest (FSSW), and you can also hear it on 1310AM/96.7FM The Ticket. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. from the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas.
Records and Scores
The month of January is about a week from being over, and the Dallas Stars should be happy about that. After an early slump in the month, the Stars finally seem to be picking the pace back up. With a record of 30-13-5 with 65 points, the Stars sit second place in the Central Division and third place in the NHL as a whole. Their most recent game comes as a 3-2 win over the Oilers and they are 2-2-1 in their last five contests.
The Colorado Avalanche, on the other hand, are slowly inching their way back up the standings. After spending a majority of the early part of the season in last in the division, the Avs are now 25-21-3 with 53 points. This performance is good enough for fifth place in the Central and the final wild card spot. Their most recent game comes as a 2-1 shootout victory against the Blues last night. They are 4-1-0 in their last five.
Storylines
Maybe a blowdryer would help the Stars?
The Dallas Stars are a good team this season, we know that. There have been many an opponent this season that the Stars have easily handled. As a result, they are near the top of the standings with the elite teams.
But that does not mean they are indestructible. In fact, they have been the inferior club to another team for over two years now. This team is the Colorado Avalanche. Since the beginning of the 2013-2014 season, the Stars are an atrocious 1-7-3 against the Avs. The only win against Colorado since the division realignment was on December 17th, 2013.
Whether the Stars are riding a hot streak or cannot win to save their lives, Colorado always finds a way to stump them. Tonight is a critical night for the Stars if they are aiming to continue this point streak as well as rise up in the standings back to their former spot of first place.
The Avalanche deserve to win the Central Division
It’s no secret that the Colorado Avalanche are not succeeding as much as they had hoped they would at the beginning of this season. After winning the Central Division two years ago, they have hit a rough patch that included missing the playoffs last season. There have been some roster adjustments and trades, but nothing seems to be working.
That does not stop them from succeeding against the toughest division in hockey, though. This season, the Avalanche are an unbelievable 11-3-1 in Central Division play. That means that almost half of their total wins have come from interdivisional play. One of those wins was against the Stars at the very beginning of the season, and they will be aiming for a second one tonight.
Injury report
The Dallas Stars will be without defenseman Jordie Benn (lower body).
The Colorado Avalanche will be minus the services of RW Mikko Rantanen (upper body), RW Ben Street (chest), G Reto Berra (ankle), D Brad Stuart (back), and C Jesse Winchester (concussion).
Projected lines
Dallas Stars
Jamie Benn – Tyler Seguin – Patrick Sharp
Valeri Nichushkin – Cody Eakin – Jason Spezza
Antoine Roussel – Mattias Janmark – Ales Hemsky
Colton Sceviour – Vernon Fiddler – Patrick Eaves
Alex Goligoski – John Klingberg
More stars: Stars Struggles With Avalanche
Colorado Avalanche
Alex Tanguay – Nathan MacKinnon – Matt Duchene
Gabriel Landeskog – Carl Soderberg – Blake Comeau
Andreas Martinsen – Mikhail Grigorenko – Jarome Iginla
Cody McLeod – John Mitchell – Jack Skille
Francois Beauchemin – Erik Johnson
Next: Stars Face Near Unbeatable Opponent At Critical Moment
Prediction
It may sound downright ludicrous, but I like the Stars in this one. The win Thursday night was a big motivational boost, even if it was against a subpar opponent. The Dallas Stars will continue their dominance streak at home and fend off the Avalanche 3-1 for their first winning streak of 2016.