Dallas Stars Staring Down Most Important Week Of Season
The Dallas Stars are getting closer to the end of their season and running out of options.
With the losses of leading-scorer Tyler Seguin, Patrick Eaves, and Ales Hemsky, all for a possibly long time, their season has never been in greater jeopardy.
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That being said, their schedule is not doing them any favors. With a bit of a depleted lineup, the Dallas Stars will face off against the St. Louis Blues, San Jose Sharks, Detroit Red Wings, and Minnesota Wild over the next six days.
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The Dallas Stars are 1-0-1 against the Blues this season, and oddly enough have performed rather well against them. Though they sit second in the Central Division and hold an 18-point advantage over the Stars, these games always tend to be close and hard-fought. The Stars beat the Blues most recently in St. Louis back on December 27th by a score of 4-3. The Stars are less of an offensive force now than they used to be, and will need to give a high-energy performance and capitalize on every special teams chance they get. The Blues are second in the league on the power play, so a shorthanded goal might not be as easy to snag this time as it has been in the past.
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The Stars will get a day off and travel back to the Dallas where they will meet Brenden Dillon and the San Jose Sharks for the first time since the trade that brought Jason Demers to the Stars. The Stars are 0-1-0 against the Sharks, with their only matchup back on November 8th when the Stars blew a two goal lead in the third period and ended up losing 5-3. The Sharks are in a similar position as the Stars and could use the points, except they are on the inside looking out.
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On Saturday, the Dallas Stars will take on longtime rival the Detroit Red Wings. The Stars are 0-1-0 against the Wings as well, with the 5-2 loss coming on December 4th in Detroit. The Red Wings are currently third in the Atlantic Division, with no strong threats of being knocked out anytime soon.
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Low and behold, the Stars cap the week with another home-away back-to-back. The Stars have already faced seven back-to-backs this year, and will face three more down the road after this one. They will meet up with another Central Division foe, the Minnesota Wild. The Wild are only three points ahead of the Stars in the wild card race, and are fighting just as hard to get in. The Wild have won eight of their last nine games, and look like a playoff team. Their schedule continues to help them with two dates versus the Edmonton Oilers in the next week. Sad as it seems, this will probably be the Dallas Stars biggest game of the week, on a back-to-back, with lack of offensive firepower.
Basically, if the Dallas Stars cannot scrap at least six of the eight possible points this week, they may be looking at a long offseason ahead. We will see where they stand at the beginning of next week. Until then, about all you can do is say “Go Stars.”