Dallas Stars @ Chicago Blackhawks – Game Preview

The Dallas Stars will look to win on back-to-back nights tonight when they head to the United Center to take on the Chicago Blackhawks.  This will be the fourth of five meetings this season with the Blackhawks and Chicago has won all three previous contests.  This is the third and final game for the Stars playing the Blackhawks on the road.  All three of the games in Chicago come with the Stars having played the night before.  Puck drop is at 5:00pm CT and the game can be found on Fox Sports Southwest or on 1310AM/96.7FM the Ticket.

Records and Scores

The Dallas Stars (20-17-7) currently sit four points back of the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference.  The Calgary Flames currently hold that spot with 51 points.  The Stars will use their game in hand on the Flames tonight against the Blackhawks.  The new year has been a mixed bag so far for the Stars as they have posted a record of 3-3-2 in 2015.  Dallas has yet to pick up a win on the second of a back-to-back set this season.  The Stars will play the Boston Bruins on Tuesday night which will be the final game before the All-Star Break.

The Chicago Blackhawks (28-14-2) come into this game well rested but a full six points behind division-leading Nashville.  Like the Stars, the Blackhawks have also had some inconsistencies in the year 2015 as they have gone 3-4-0 so far in the new year.  The Blackhawks currently sit in third in the Central Division, two points shy of the second-place St. Louis Blues.  Chicago has back-to-back games against the Arizona Coyotes and Pittsburgh Penguins before heading to the All-Star Break.

Storylines

Everyone is scoring for the Stars

We already know about the league’s leading goal scorer Tyler Seguin.  We already know how good Jamie Benn has been.  The three guys that follow those two in goals scored for the Stars this season could not be more different from each other.  You’ve got Erik Cole, a long time veteran of this league who is having his best season in a Stars uniform.  He has 11 goals and 11 assists so far this season and leads all Dallas players in hits.  Then you’ve got Antoine Roussel, also coming into tonight with 11 goals and 11 assists.  Roussel leads the Stars in penalty minutes and it doesn’t really matter who is in second place because they aren’t catching Roussel in that category.  He’s young and has a lot of years of hockey ahead of him and the goal-scoring continues to be improved.  Finally you have Trevor Daley, who also finds himself with 11 goals on the season.  While Daley has struggled defensively at times this season, he is having a career-year offensively.  He leads all Stars defensemen in goal scoring and is actually just one goal behind Erik Johnson for the league lead.  The Stars are at their best when the entire team is chipping in offensively and these three guys are leading the way so far this year.

Daniel Carcillo facing potential league discipline

The Stars played the Jets last Thursday and saw Mathieu Perreault play a solid game and he has been one of the hotter players in the NHL lately.  Unfortunately he was injured by a malicious cross-check courtesy of Dan Carcillo, who has now been offered an in-person hearing for his actions.  Carcillo has plenty of history when it comes to fines and suspensions from the league’s Department of Player Safety and really it is quite disappointing.  Carcillo can be one of the top agitators when he isn’t crossing the line and we saw that last year in the playoffs when he played for the New York Rangers.  The Blackhawks will plan to move on without Carcillo for at least a few games although no suspension has been announced so far.

Injury Report

The injury list is starting to grow for the Dallas Stars as Trevor Daley and Brett Ritchie are both out with undisclosed injuries.  Patrick Eaves (ankle), Valeri Nichushkin (hip), Patrik Nemeth (arm), and Rich Peverley (heart) remain out.

The Blackhawks will be without Kris Versteeg (hand) and Trevor van Riemsdyk (knee).

Projected Lines

Dallas Stars

Ja. Benn – Seguin – Sceviour

Cole – Spezza – Hemsky

Roussel – Eakin – Garbutt

Horcoff – Fiddler – Moen

Goligoski – Klingberg

Jo. Benn – Demers

Oleksiak – Jokipakka

Lehtonen (?)

Lindback (?)

Chicago Blackhawks

Saad – Toews – Hossa

Bickell – Richards – Kane

Sharp – Teravainen – Smith

Nordstrom – Kruger – Shaw

Keith – Seabrook

Hjalmarsson – Oduya

Rozsival – Rundblad

Crawford

Raanta

Prediction

The Stars are battled and bruised and I think it really hurts them in tonight’s game.  The Stars lose a tough second game of a back-to-back by the score of 5-2.  Hopefully I am wrong, check back here for postgame coverage!