Fansided

Dallas Stars Visit Florida Panthers: Official Preview

By Allison Scott |

The Dallas Stars will finish their Florida road trip tonight as they face off against the Panthers at the BB&T Center. Puck drop is early tonight at 6PM and the game can be seen on Fox Sports Southwest.

Records and Scores

Dallas Stars

The Dallas Stars are (3-1-0) through their first four games of the new season. Dallas comes into tonight after having beat the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday by a score of 5-3. The Stars will look to continue their winning ways tonight against the Panthers.

Florida Panthers

Florida is also (3-1-0) through their first four games this season with their most recent win coming Thursday against the Buffalo Sabres. They won that game by a score of 3-2 and put themselves in a situation in which they had to lean on their two-goal first period before scoring in the third to secure the win. Tonight the Panthers will aim to play to the level they’re capable of for the full sixty minutes in hopes of besting the Stars at home.

Story Lines

Injuries Galore

While every team in the league suffers from injuries at one point or another during the season, the Stars have started off 2015-2016 with a notable number of them.

Brett Ritchie hurt his wrist during the preseason, followed by Patrick Eaves injuring his lower body earlier this week. Curtis McKenzie found his way into the injured group after leaving Thursday night’s match-up against the Lightning with a lower body injury as well.

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The key for Dallas, however, is to realize that injuries are unavoidable in such a physical sport and they have to find ways to power through them. Despite the list of injured players not including the names of Tyler Seguin or Jamie Benn the absence of players from the line-up changes the dynamic of the team and will make it so that other players have to fill the voids.

As long as the Stars can focus on working together as a team, they should continue their success.

Dispersion of Offense

On a more positive note, the Stars have been the benefactors of scoring throughout the line-up, from the first to fourth lines all the way to defense Dallas’ players have been finding the back of the net. In the 5-3 win against Tampa Bay Dallas got goals from Seguin, Benn, and Jason Spezza, but also Cody Eakin and Jason Demers.

That score sheet in particular is representative of just what the Stars can do when they’re on their game and playing together as a unit. The hope is for this to not be a one-time thing and for Dallas to have consistency in their offensive contributions. That starts tonight.

Injury Report

Dallas Stars

The Stars will be without forwards Brett Ritchie (wrist), Patrick Eaves (lower body) and Curtis McKenzie (lower body).

Florida Panthers

Florida will be without center Rocco Grimaldi (ankle) tonight.

Projected Lines

Dallas Stars

Jamie Benn – Tyler Seguin – Patrick Sharp

Valeri Nichushkin – Jason Spezza – Colton Sceviour

Mattias Janmark- Cody Eakin – Ales Hemsky

Antoine Roussel – Vernon Fiddler – Radek Fadska

Alex Goligoski – John Klingberg

Johnny Oduya – Jason Demers

Jyrki Jokipakka – Jordie Benn

Kari Lehtonen

Antti Niemi

Florida Panthers

Jonathan Huberdeau – Aleksandar Barkov – Jaromir Jagr

Brandon Pirri – Nick Bjugstad – Reilly Smith

Jussi Jokinen – Dave Bolland – Vincent Trocheck

Connor Brickley – Derek MacKenzie – Shawn Thornton

Brian Campbell – Aaron Ekblad

Willie Mitchell – Erik Gudbranson

Dmitry Kulikov – Alex Petrovic

Roberto Luongo

Al Montoya

Prediction

The Dallas Stars will make it three in a row for the first time in the 2015-2016 season as they beat the Panthers 3-2 in regulation.

Next: Radek Faksa Recalled By Dallas; Could It Be Another Janmark Scenario?

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