Dallas Stars take on Colorado Avalanche: Official Preview
The Dallas Stars and Colorado Avalanche will face-off tonight at the American Airlines Center in hopes of keeping their playoff dreams alive. Both teams are on the outside looking in on the Western Conference playoff race, but will look to add to their season totals tonight. Puck drop is set for 7:30PM CT and the game can be seen on Fox Sports Southwest and heard via 1310 the ticket.
Records and Scores
The Dallas Stars (27-25-9) looked to be making a serious run at the playoffs a few weeks back when they sat only three points out with games in hand, but costly injuries and the inability to protect leads has greatly diminished their chances. The Stars are losers of four straight, most recently to the Winnipeg Jets by a score of 4-2. Dallas is also a rather injury-stricken team right now and is fighting to stay relevant in the race for the final wild card position, currently held by the Minnesota Wild. Tonight they’ll aim to hit 65 points and remain in the chase.
The Colorado Avalanche (26-24-11) currently have the same number of points as the Stars, but sit one place behind them in the standings because of their lack of regulation/overtime wins. They most recently lost to the Nashville Predators on Tuesday night, 5-2. The Avalanche will look to best the Stars in order to gain ground in the Western Conference Playoff Race tonight.
Story Lines
Injuries
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Blackhawk Up
The Stars have been a rather unlucky team of late, losing number one center Tyler Seguin, Patrick Eaves, and Ales Hemsky in a game against the Florida Panthers the week before last. Hemsky is expected to be in the line-up for tonight’s game, Eaves skated with the team but wasn’t on a line during the morning skate, and Seguin will be out for a few more weeks. On top of that Kari Lehtonen had an unspecified injury that has kept him from starting for a few games, but based on the morning skate he is the starter tonight. The injuries, however, cannot be used as an excuse for Dallas missing the playoffs. They’ll have to go on a serious run, but it’s not over until it’s over and if the Stars can string some points together they can make a return to post-season play.
Multiple Goal Leads
One would think that establishing a lead early would be advantageous and would put a team on the course to win games; however, that has not been the case for the Stars of late. Going up by one or even a couple of goals has proven to be detrimental to Dallas’ success. Just last Saturday the Stars surrendered a two-goal lead twice to lose to the Detroit Red Wings in overtime, costing them a valuable point in the standings. Not to mention, that Dallas also can’t seem to find ways to win against teams just above them in the standings. In order for the Stars to be successful tonight they’ll have to get their skating game going and convert on chances, while also having the better performance from their goalie.
Wildcard Race
Every year it seems as if the difference between playoff and non-playoff teams in the Western Conference is a handful or fewer points. This season looks to be no different. The Stars are eight points back of Minnesota having played the same number of games. With only twenty-one games remaining, including tonight, the Stars will have to be victorious in the majority of them to make a wildcard position. The updated wildcard race is as follows:
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Only the Winnipeg Jets and Minnesota Wild would be in the playoffs if they were to start today out of this group. If Dallas can accumulate the same number of points as the team that ends up holding the final wildcard position at the end of the season they would have to also have more regulation/overtime wins being that is the criteria for the first tie-breaker.
Injury Report
The Dallas Stars have an abundance of injuries. Rich Peverley (heart) will be out for an unspecified amount of time, while Valeri Nichushkin (hip) and Patrik Nemeth (arm laceration) are getting closer to their respective returns. Tyler Seguin (knee) has been working on recovering and is said to be ahead of schedule, but he won’t play for a few weeks. Both Kari Lehtonen (undisclosed) and Ales Hemsky (lower body) are probable for tonight’s game. Patrick Eaves (concussion) is still sidelined, as is Travis Moen (upper body).
The Colorado Avalanche will be without Jesse Winchester (concussion), Jamie McGinn (back), Ryan Wilson (shoulder), Borna Rendulic (broken leg), Patrick Bordeleau (knee), and Erik Johnson (knee). Jan Hejda* (knee) is listed as day-to-day, but could play tonight.
Projected Lines
Dallas Stars
Erik Cole – Jason Spezza – Ales Hemsky
Jamie Benn – Cody Eakin – Brett Ritchie
Antoine Roussel – Vernon Fiddler – Ryan Garbutt
Curtis McKenzie – Shawn Horcoff – Colton Sceviour
Alex Goligoski – John Klingberg
Jyrki Jokipakka – Trevor Daley
Jordie Benn – Jason Demers
Kari Lehtonen (expected starter)
Jhonas Enroth
Colorado Avalanche
Gabriel Landeskog – Ryan O’Reilly – Nathan Mackinnon
Max Talbot– Matt Duchene – Jarome Iginla
Alex Tanguay– John Mitchell – Dennis Everberg
Cody McLeod – Marc-Andre Cliche – Danny Briere
Nate Guenin – Tyson Barrie
Jan Hejda* – Zach Redmond
Brad Stuart – Nick Holden
Semyon Varlamov (expected starter)
Reto Berra
Prediction
The Dallas Stars will end their losing streak and beat the Colorado Avalanche 3-2 in regulation.
What’s your prediction? Leave it in the comments and be sure to check back after the conclusion of tonight’s match-up for the post-game analysis!
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