The Dallas Stars will finish up their road trip tonight against the Minnesota Wild in a Central Division rivalry matchup.
Only 24 games remain in the Dallas Stars’ 2016-17 campaign, and things couldn’t look much bleaker for them at this point. Nonetheless, the season rages on as the Stars pay a visit to the Minnesota Wild tonight.
The game will be broadcast 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. CT from the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Records and Scores
The Dallas Stars enter tonight’s game with a lowly record of 22-26-10 with 54 points. At this point, their playoff hopes are all but lost as they sit sixth in the Central Division and twelfth overall in the West. Their most recent game was a 5-2 loss to the Winnipeg Jets and they are 1-4-0 in their last five games.
The Minnesota Wild enter tonight’s game with a record of 37-13-6 with 80 points. That’s good enough to put them atop the Central Division and Western Conference, just where Dallas sat last season. Their most recent game was a 1-0 loss to the Anaheim Ducks and they are 3-1-1 in their last five.
Dallas Stars
Storylines
What goes around, comes around
We’ve seen quite the turn of events for the Dallas Stars and Minnesota Wild over the past 10 months or so. Back in April of 2016, the Stars ended their season on an extremely high note, taking both the Central Division and Western Conference titles for regular season champions. Meanwhile, the Wild were clawing just to get into the playoffs and finished as the eight seed.
Where has the time gone? The Dallas Stars now sit near the bottom of the Western Conference standings with their playoff hopes all but dashed. The Wild, on the other hand, are atop the Western Conference, just waiting for an opponent to try and test them.
It’s crazy what one offseason can do.
Playing for style?
After Tuesday night’s loss, the Stars continued their tradition of slipping down the standings, and time is quickly running out. While Dallas is still a ways away from being mathematically eliminated, the trend they are currently following will have them fully out of the race in no time.
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With the trade deadline and final full month of the season coming up, the Stars might be locked into playing for style at this point. They sit seven points out of the final wild card spot and have not proven that they have the power to rally. We’ll see how their play dictates their situation over the final 24 games, and that starts tonight in Minnesota.
Wild always have an upper hand on Dallas
The Dallas Stars may have played some of their best games this year against the Wild. They are 1-2-1 against them this season, and the first meeting was the only time where the game was uneven (Wild won 4-0).
In the last three meetings, the Stars have won in overtime, lost 5-4 after a four-goal rally, and lost in a shootout. But for some reason, it doesn’t matter how well Dallas plays. The Wild always find a way to gain the upper hand.
Now that Minnesota is running the Western Conference and Dallas is gasping for air, it almost seems as though the results won’t be any different.
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Skidding into the break
On Feb. 1, I wrote about how the month of February would determine where the Dallas Stars would be going in the months to come. If that’s true, then the Stars are already out of the race.
Dallas has posted a 1-6-0 record in the month so far and cannot seem to make ends meet. One little mistake here or bad turnover there in each game is causing the losses to pile up.
The Stars have a six-day break up ahead in the schedule, spanning from this Sunday to Friday. There are only two more games in their schedule before then, being tonight against Minnesota and Saturday against Tampa Bay.
Even if the Stars found a way to win out before the break and trade deadline, it still wouldn’t be able to entirely counteract the negative results that have accumulated this month.
Injury report
The Dallas Stars will play without D Johnny Oduya (ankle), C Mattias Janmark (knee), and RW Ales Hemsky (hip) in tonight’s game.
The Minnesota Wild will be minus the services of D Matt Dumba (lower body), D Jonas Brodin (finger), and D Victor Bartley (triceps).
Projected lines
Dallas Stars
Jamie Benn – Cody Eakin – Patrick Eaves
Devin Shore – Jason Spezza – Tyler Seguin
Antoine Roussel – Radek Faksa – Patrick Sharp
Curtis McKenzie – Adam Cracknell – Brett Ritchie
Patrik Nemeth – Jamie Oleksiak
Minnesota Wild
Nino Niederreiter – Eric Staal – Alex Tuch
Jason Zucker – Mikko Koivu – Mikael Granlund
Zach Parise – Charlie Coyle – Jason Pominville
Chris Stewart – Eric Haula – Jordan Schroeder
Marco Scandella – Christian Folin
Gustav Olofsson – Nate Prosser
Next: How To Watch Tonight's Stars-Wild Game
Prediction
The Stars are still struggling to find their niche while the Wild continue to power through each opponent. That being said, give me Minnesota winning this one 4-3.