Dallas Stars Back In Central Territory Against Nashville Predators
Dallas Stars will continue their pursuit of victory in the Central Division as they take on the Predators tonight in Nashville.
With some obstacles to overcome early in this season, the Dallas Stars have painted themselves as a bit of an underdog, but at the same time, a dark horse in the Central division.
After an all-hands-on-deck win against Anaheim to open up the season and an ugly follow-up falling out with the Colorado Avalanche at the dreaded Pepsi Center, the Stars will be shaking the dust off their boots and moving onto Nashville, where they will hope to progress to a 2-1-0 record and stay out of the red early on.
Make sure to catch the game and every action-packed moment on Fox Sports Southwest (FSSW), or on 1310 AM/ 96.7FM The Ticket. And from the moment the puck drops at 7 PM at Bridgestone Arena, we’ll be keeping you up to date, as always, with all things Stars.
Records and Scores
Our Dallas Stars are 1-1-0, still in a very young season that could go either way. They’ve faced and won against a Pacific opponent, but fallen to a Central one.
The Nashville Predators are in the same boat, really. With a 1-1-0 score, they faced the Blackhawks twice and won their home opener, but fell by a deficit of 2 when they went to Chicago.
Storylines
Centralizing efforts
The Stars are starting to see early on this season that the Central division has not changed and is going to give them a run for their money, as usual. Although their defeat of the Ducks was not the prettiest win, it didn’t look like a struggle by any means.
But the Stars suffered from many reoccurring problems against the Avalanche, which seems to signal that they are more easily haunted by their past when facing Central division opponents. They’ll get another chance to see if they can put their past behind them tonight in Nashville, where they’ve had success in the past.
Young blood
So far, the new guys have really shone for the Stars. The efforts of the rookies, the new acquisitions, and the defensemen was epic in the home opener, and then the more veteran players helped carry their early lead against the Avalanche.
Clearly, a key for the Stars to come out strong early on and hold onto a lead will be the young guys and old guys (figuratively) hitting on all cylinders, preferably at the same time. I’ll spare you all the adages about teamwork, and just cross my fingers that the Stars will utilize it tonight.
Net woes
We’ve seen one good performance from Antti Niemi and one good performance from Kari Lehtonen. However, after Niemi’s near meltdown in Colorado, I think it’s safe to say that Lehtonen gets the start and will continue to man the net for Dallas until he has a break of similar proportions.
I believe that’s how the tandem system is going to unfold this season. Whoever is in the best mental space to win will get the start, and when that confidence suffers, the other guy will take over.
Injury Report
The Dallas Stars are slowly but surely regaining players from that dreaded IR. However, Cody Eakin (knee) and Mattias Janmark (knee) will be out for quite a while longer, with Ales Hemsky (groin) lingers on the edge of return. Jiri Hudler is also sick and is not expected to play in Nashville.
The Predators lost Anthony Bitetto (upper body) and Mikka Salomaki (upper body) recently for an extended period of time, and Nashville is hoping to fill their spots with depth players.
Projected Lines
Dallas Stars
Jamie Benn – Tyler Seguin – Patrick Eaves
Patrick Sharp – Devin Shore –Brett Ritchie
Antoine Roussel – Radek Faksa – Jason Spezza
Curtis McKenzie – Adam Cracknell – Lauri Korpikoski
Kari Lehtonen
Antti Niemi
Nashville Predators
Filip Forsberg – Ryan Johansen – Kevin Fiala
Colin Wilson – Mike Fisher – James Neal
Viktor Ardivsson – Mike Ribeiro – Craig Smith
Cody Bass – Colotn Sissons – Calle Jarnkrok
Next: Dallas Stars Should Avoid Playing Catch-up Game
Predictions
The Dallas Stars know what they have to do to get back on track. The can’t let the Predators show up early in the game and put them behind right off the bat. I believe the Stars will have learned their lesson and will come ready to score, and will leave the Predators in the dust 4-2.