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Five Dallas Stars Games This Season That Can’t Be Missed

By Nick Kucholtz

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Last season, the Dallas Stars played in more than a handful of nail-biting, intense, down to the wire hockey games.

Unfortunately, they ended up losing most of those games. Whether it was the shootout loss to Chicago on Opening Night, the 7-6 OT meltdown loss to the Red Wings, or the 6-5 OT loss to Philadelphia, the list goes on and on.

And losing most of those games were just a small part of the recipe to disaster.

The Stars lost in 10 Overtime/Shootout games last year, many in which they were leading late in regulation. Dallas collapsed in the final minutes numerous times, and blew many points away: points that would’ve been very useful towards the end of the season.

But with a new year, comes a new season. Dallas Stars General Manager Jim Nill went all in this off-season, adding Goalie Antti Niemi, Left Winger Patrick Sharp, and defenseman Johnny Oduya.

With the new season just 66 days away, Dallas Stars fans everywhere are anxious to see what this team can do on the ice this season.

Today, we look at five important Stars games this 2015-2016 season that you just can’t miss.

Thursday October 8th, Pittsburgh Penguins

Come on. Of course this one was going to be on here. Brand new Dallas Stars players will make their debut at the American Airlines Center on Opening Night, going up against Sid the Kid, Evgeni Malkin, and the crew from Pittsburgh.

Not only did the Stars acquire numerous players, but the Penguins made some moves themselves. This offseason, GM Jim Rutherford traded for 27-year-old Right Winger Phil Kessel, hoping to add on to the already-stacked Pittsburgh offense.

Last season, the Stars took both games from the Pens, including a last-second thrilling 3-2 victory in Pittsburgh early in the season. This year, the Victory Green will look to have similar success against a very talented Pittsburgh hockey team.

Tuesday December 15th, Columbus Blue Jackets

The Columbus Blue Jackets caught the attention of every NHL fan when they traded for 22-year-old phenom Brandon Saad on June 30th.

Columbus finished with just 89 points last season, failing to make the playoffs after winning their first playoff hockey game in franchise history the year before. Similar to the Stars, however, the Blue Jackets finished the season strong by going on a win streak, sparking optimism throughout the entire franchise heading into this upcoming season. Columbus also faced an unfathomable amount of injuries last season, leading to 502 man games lost.

Both the Stars and the Blue Jackets seem to have extremely bright futures, and when Columbus comes to town in mid-December, all hockey fans across the league will be in for a great hockey game.

Thursday February 11th, @ Chicago Blackhawks

Every fan remembers the blockbuster trade between these two hockey teams during this year’s offseason.

On July 10th, the Stars acquired LW Patrick Sharp and D Stephen Johns, in exchange for D Trevor Daley and C Ryan Garbutt.

This will be the first time that 3x Stanley Cup Champion Sharp will return to the United Center in Chicago, inevitably to a standing ovation from the Blackhawks fans, despite playing in green and white this time around. This will also be the first game back in Chicago for D Johnny Oduya, as the Stars acquired him as a free agent. Oduya’s success and accomplishments with the Blackhawks will indeed lead a standing ovation, as well. Johns, meanwhile, is hoping to make his National Hockey debut sometime this season, and if the Dallas Stars defense struggles early in the season, there’s a chance that he could be apart of the six-man rotation by this time in February.

While the Stars have had nowhere near the success the Blackhawks have in recent years, it will still be weird for Dallas fans to see Ryan Garbutt, and especially Trevor Daley in a different uniform.

Dallas-Chicago games come down to the wire most of the time, and are always entertaining for both fans to watch.

Tuesday February 16th, @ St. Louis Blues

Two days after Valentine’s Day, the Stars will head to Missouri to face one of their Central Division Rivals, the St. Louis Blues.

The Blues have disappointed in the playoffs for several years in a row now, despite having remarkable success in the regular season, including winning the Central Division last season with 109 points.

The Blues’ main summer move was sending C T.J. Oshie to the Washington Capitals. However, with mostly resignings during the offseason, the Blues roster won’t look too different than it did last season.

St. Louis had the head-to-head advantage last season, winning three of their five games against the Stars. Four out of the five games between these two teams last season came down to the wire, so expect this match up on February 16th to do the same.

Last, but certainly not least, this is one of the three nationally televised games that the Dallas Stars will play in during the 2015-2016 season.

Sunday April 3rd, @ Anaheim Ducks

Last, is the Anaheim Ducks. Who doesn’t love a Dallas-Anaheim match up?

This one will be even wilder, as it is in the final week of the NHL season. It’s also reasonable to assume that both teams will be fighting for a playoff spot, and this game could make or break one team’s season.

Also, former Dallas Stars C Shawn Horcoff signed with Anaheim during the offseason, and while this game won’t be the first time Horcoff faces his former team, it will still be very foreign seeing him in Ducks uniform after two productive seasons with the Stars.

The Ducks took two of three from Dallas last year, but the Stars crushed Anaheim 4-0 during their four game win streak in the final week of the season. Each and every single Ducks-Stars game is entertaining, and this one won’t fall short of it’s expectations.

Now, these are just five of the many phenomenal games to come this season.

If the Dallas Stars are to succeed in this year’s campaign, they can’t afford to collapse late in the 3rd period and in overtime, as they did in many games last season.

Last year, the defensive situation, both the goalies and the d-men, was all-in-all horrendous. But during this year’s offseason, Jim Nill went all in to fix it, and brought in talented, experienced hockey players.

The Dallas Stars have all the ingredients they need to win a lot of hockey games, they are just looking for the final recipe. If they can take their on-paper talent and carry it over to the ice, Dallas fans everywhere will be in a for a treat this season.

Next: Dallas Stars Injuries: Hemsky, Nichushkin, Jamie Benn Update

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