Dallas Stars Head to the Gateway City
The Dallas Stars will play against a Central Division foe for the fourth time in their last five games as they visit the St. Louis Blues tonight. Puck drop is set for 7PM CT and the game can be seen on the NBC Sports Network.
Records and Scores
The Stars (36-15-5) regained the Central Division lead with a 4-3 regulation victory over the Chicago Blackhawks Saturday night. The game was costly, though, as Tyler Seguin was cut by a skate and Cody Eakin suffered an undisclosed injury. Dallas should have both forwards in the line-up tonight, considering they played last night, as they increase their hold on the division lead.
The Blues (32-17-9) sit third in the highly competitive Central Division. They’re returning home after a close 2-1 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning Sunday night and they’ll aim for a similar outcome in tonight’s match-up.
Story Lines
Shining Stars Once Again
The Dallas Stars have had a rather up and down 2016 thus far, but have been able to turn their play around and regain the division lead they held for the majority of the 2015 portion of the year. Not only are they getting the results they want now, they’re playing a more complete game.
Dallas has finally taken advantage of their immense skill of late and it’s showing in their game on a nightly basis. Kari Lehtonen has returned to action after sitting as the back-up for a number of games and has single handedly earned the Stars a few points in recent games.
Those kinds of individual performances are exactly what the Stars are looking for down the final stretch of the regular season before they head into the playoffs.
More from Dallas Stars News
- Dallas Stars Traverse City Tournament: Who had great performances?
- Grushnikov and Stankoven lead Dallas Stars to 6-3 win over Columbus
- Dallas Stars prospects look to wrap up tournament with a win
- Burn the tapes: Dallas Stars prospects lose 5-1 to Toronto Maple Leafs
- Dallas Stars look to continue success today against the Maple Leafs
Strong Starts, Nerve-wracking Finishes
Dallas always manages to keep things interesting. They’ve established a 4-0 lead in the game last Thursday night in Chicago, but had troubles in the third period as the Hawks came back to make it 4-2 before the clock ran out.
Then at home Saturday night they had a four-goal second period lead that almost evaporated as the Caps came to within one before regulation ended. Those aren’t the kinds of ends to games the Stars need to make habitual because they’re not only defensively concerning, they’ll be detrimental in the playoffs.
Dallas has to learn how to play with a lead and not depend on defending to win games. Their strengths lie in offense and they need not test their defense if they don’t have to.
Injury Report
The Stars will be without Spezza (upper-body) tonight.
The Blues will play without Steve Ott (hamstring), Alex Pietrangelo (knee), and Jake Allen (knee).
Line Combinations
Dallas Stars
Jamie Benn – Tyler Seguin – Patrick Eaves
Valeri Nichushkin – Mattias Janmark – Ales Hemsky
Antoine Roussel – Cody Eakin – Patrick Sharp
Vernon Fiddler – Radek Faksa – Colton Sceviour
Alex Goligoski – John Klingberg
St. Louis Blues
Patrik Berglund – Alex Steen – David Backes
Jaden Schwartz – Jori Lehtera – Vladimir Tarasenko
Robby Fabbri – Paul Stastny – Troy Brouwer
Scottie Upshall – Kyle Brodziak – Ryan Reeves
Jay Bouwmeester – Kevin Shattenkirk
Carl Gunnarsson – Colton Parayko
Joel Edmundson – Robert Bortuzzo
Brian Elliot
Pheonix Copley
Next: Jamie Benn's Shot at Art Ross Repeat
Prediction
The Dallas Stars will defeat the St. Louis Blues 4-1.