Arizona Coyotes @ Dallas Stars – Game Preview

The Dallas Stars (6-9-4) will look to get things back on track tonight at the American Airlines Center when they take on the Arizona Coyotes (8-9-2) for the second time this season.  Last week in Glendale the Stars overcame their third period struggles and won the game 4-3.  The Coyotes are coming off an overtime loss to the Washington Capitals while the Stars have lost three straight games.  The game can be seen on Fox Sports Southwest or listened to on 1310AM/96.7FM The Ticket at 7:30pm CT.

Records and Scores

After winning two straight last week, the Stars have now lost three in a row and once again find themselves at the bottom of the Central Division.  Defense has once again been the problem the past couple games as the Stars have twice given up 4-goal periods in the past two contests.  Although the Stars continue to produce offensively, they just cannot seem to keep the puck out of the net.  They have given up 6 goals in each of their past two games and Kari Lehtonen was pulled after giving up 4 goals in Dallas against the Hurricanes on Tuesday.

The Coyotes have had a similar season to Dallas in the sense that they have just been unable to find any sort of stability in their game.  Like the Stars, they have struggled defensively as they have given up an average of 3.05 goals per game.  They also won two in a row last week before falling to the Capitals in overtime on Tuesday.  Keith Yandle leads the team offensively with 14 points as they don’t seem to have that go-to guy offensively yet.

Storylines

The John Klingberg Experiment seems to be working, what about Jyrki Jokipakka?

John Klingberg has been fantastic through his first five games as an NHL defensemen.  He has registered three assists in those games and you can see the confidence in his game every time he touches the puck.  Jamie Oleksiak has also been pretty solid of late, so it appears the Stars will continue to throw young defensemen in the deep-end when Jyrki Jokipakka is expected to play tonight.  He has appeared in three games so far this season without registering a point, but he looked fantastic in training camp and maybe just a few of these new faces is what the Stars need to turn their defensive struggles around.

Who will be the guy to step up for the offensively-challenged Coyotes?

So far a defensemen in Keith Yandle is leading the Coyotes in points with 14.  The defensemen part isn’t so much the problem, the production itself is.  They are looking for a guy to step up and start leading this team offensively.  Someone like Tyler Seguin or Jason Spezza who is a danger to score every single time he is on the ice.  I think that guy could be Mikkel Boedker.  He has a respectable 7 goals and 12 points so far this season and the reason I think he needs to be the guy in Arizona is his speed.  The Stars have seen it already this year, Boedker can absolutely fly and his legs can create scoring chances.  If the Coyotes are going to have a top scorer this year, I think Boedker will have to be the one to go out and take that role.

Injury Report

Ryan Garbutt (upper body) will be out and is expected to miss about a week for the Stars.  Val Nichushkin (hip) and Patrik Nemeth (arm) are also out.

For the Coyotes, Rob Klinkhammer (upper body) is considered day-to-day.  Brandon Gormley (lower body) and David Moss (upper body) are out.

Projected Lines

Dallas Stars

As I mentioned above, Jyrki Jokipakka will be in for this game but it hasn’t been revealed where he will play.  Here are the projected lines:

Ja. Benn – Eakin – Seguin

Roussel – Spezza – Hemsky

McKenzie – Fiddler – Eaves

Cole – Horcoff – Sceviour

Goligoski – Daley

Dillon – Klingberg

Oleksiak – Jokipakka

Lehtonen

Lindback

Arizona Coyotes

Korpikoski – Vermette – Boedker

Lessio – Gagner – Doan

Rieder – Chipchura – Erat

McMillan – Vitale – Crombeen

Ekman-Larsson – Michalek

Yandle – Murphy

Summers – Stone

Smith

Dubnyk

Prediction

At some point, the Stars HAVE to figure it out at home right?  I’ve predicted the Stars to win a lot of these games simply because they probably should be.  Slumps have to end at some time and I have to believe there is enough heart in that locker room to take a stand and come out and dominate an opponent.  That happens tonight.  Antoine Roussel gets two goals tonight and the Stars beat the Coyotes by a score of 5-2.  Check back here for the postgame recap!