Arizona Coyotes @ Dallas Stars – Game Preview

Happy New Years Eve Stars fans!  The Dallas Stars will attempt to continue their recent winning ways tonight against the Arizona Coyotes.  This will be the third and final meeting between these two teams with the Stars coming away victorious in both of the previous contests.  This game can be seen on Fox Sports Southwest or listened to on 1310AM/96.7FM The Ticket.  The puck is scheduled to be dropped at 7:00pm CT at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.

Records and Scores

The Dallas Stars (16-4-5) have really turned things around of late.  They have won two straight games and are 7-2-0 in their last nine.  They are coming off a 3-2 victory over the New York Rangers, who were riding an eight game winning streak of their own.  Coming into play tonight, the Stars sit six points back of the San Jose Sharks in the eighth and final playoff spot.  It is worth mentioning that the Stars do have two games in hand on the Sharks, but that doesn’t mean much if they don’t win those games.  If the Stars can continue to improve their home record (7-7-5) they will be in the playoff discussion once again.

The Arizona Coyotes (14-18-4) also have been winning lately and they are currently riding a three game win streak.  They currently sit 11 points back of the eighth and final playoff spot.  Before their recent win streak, the Coyotes all but vanished out of the playoff discussion.  They were 1-6-1 in the eight game stretch before this three game winning streak and that has them not even within shouting distance of the playoffs at the moment.

Storylines

Roussel adding a scoring touch

Most people who think Antoine Roussel think his main purpose is to agitate the other team and occasionally drop the gloves as well.  He does both of those things and he does them quite well.  But this season there has been an added element to his game and it has been racking up the points.  His passes are crisper and more accurate and his shots seem more on point as well.  Currently Roussel is tied for fourth on the team with 17 points and is tied for third on the team with 8 goals.  He is also third in the entire league in penalty minutes, most of them of the 5 and 10 minute variety.  He is an excellent agitator and for my money one of the most fun players to watch in the entire NHL.  If he continues to put up the points to go along with that agitating ability, he will be a tough customer to deal with for a long time in Dallas.

Sam Gagner starting to find his stride

The last time these two teams met, Sam Gagner had not done much in an Arizona Coyote uniform.  After being traded twice in the offseason, Gagner essentially found himself moving on from Edmonton and heading to Arizona.  For the first couple months, he did not seem comfortable at all and had a lot of problems producing.  Recently he has turned that around, posting seven points in his last six games.  The Coyotes were hoping he was going to be a top-producing center for them as they have had loads of trouble at that position in recent years.  If Gagner can continue his recent stretch of solid play, the Coyotes may have at least found a top-2 center for years to come.

Injury Report

The Stars will once again be without Patrick Eaves (ankle), Val Nichushkin (hip), Patrik Nemeth (arm), and Rich Peverley (heart).

For the Coyotes, Joe Vitale (lower body) is questionable and Chris Summers (upper body) is out.

Projected Lines

As the Stars continue to win, don’t expect the lineup to change too much.

Jamie Benn – Tyler Seguin – Colton Sceviour

Erik Cole – Jason Spezza – Ales Hemsky

Antoine Roussel – Cody Eakin – Ryan Garbutt

Shawn Horcoff – Vern Fiddler – Travis Moen

Alex Goligoski – John Klingberg

Jyrki Jokipakka – Trevor Daley

Jordie Benn – Jason Demers

Kari Lehtonen

Anders Lindback

Arizona Coyotes

Mikkel Boedker – Antoine Vermette – Shane Doan

Martin Erat – Martin Hanzal – Sam Gagner

Tobias Rieder – Kyle Chipchura – David Moss

Brandon McMillan – Joe Vitale – Lauri Korpikoski

Oliver Ekman-Larsson – Zbynek Michalek

Keith Yandle – Michael Stone

Brandon Gormley – Connor Murphy

Devan Dubynk

Mike Smith

Prediction

While both teams have been riding win streaks lately, I think the Stars win streak is more indicative of how they will play the rest of the season.  John Klingberg and Alex Goligoski each score a goal from the blue line and the Dallas Stars defeat the Arizona Coyotes 3-1 as we say goodbye to 2014.

Check back here at Blackout Dallas for a postgame recap and go Stars!