Dallas Stars Have Dominant Track Record In Afternoon Games
By Josh Clark
The Dallas Stars will face off against the New York Rangers this afternoon. Considering it is an afternoon game, it seems as though the Stars have an automatic win in the bag.
What a beautiful Saturday afternoon. The temperature in Dallas is just a touch over 70 degrees, the sun is shining, and there’s a slight wind coming from the southwest. What an excellent day for some college football.
Wait, what? College football is over? We’re currently in the middle of an eight-month drought of no college football action? That sucks. Well how are we supposed to get our sports craving on such a wonderful day?
Have no fear. The NHL is coming to the rescue. Five different NHL games are scheduled for today before 4:00 p.m. and one of them includes the Dallas Stars.
The Stars are at home for the remainder of February after spending the majority of the month on the road. They will face off with the New York Rangers today at the American Airlines Center, with a 3:00 p.m. scheduled puck drop.
This will be the Dallas Stars fourth afternoon game of the season, and they will carry some definite dominance into it. In the three afternoon games already completed this season, the Stars are 3-1-0. They have knocked off the San Jose Sharks at home, Detroit Red Wings on the road, and most recently the St. Louis Blues at home. Their only loss was against the New York Islanders in early January. They have outscored the opponents 17-10 in that span.
Some specific players on the Stars have been rather hot during these early showings as well. Antoine Roussel (1G, 2A), John Klingberg (0G, 4A), Tyler Seguin (2G, 2A), and most impressively Patrick Sharp (3G, 3A) have all put forth extreme effort in these pre-evening affairs. Considering Sharp is in a slump, it will be fun to see whether he can break out and have a star-studded game.
But it’s not just this season that has been special. The Dallas Stars have been carrying on this tradition since the surprising 2013-2014 season that ended in the five-year playoff drought being broken. The Stars are 5-4-0 since the beginning of the 2013-2014 in afternoon contests. While that does not sound entirely dominant, the fact of the matter is the 13-14 playoff team went 4-1-0. This team is most assuredly a playoff team as well.
It’s also worth mentioning that the Stars swept the New York Rangers last season. One of their wins came during an afternoon competition at Madison Square Garden in February. But they are looking for their first victory against the Rangers this season (0-1-0).
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This will not be the final time the Dallas Stars compete while the sun is still up this season either. The Stars have three more games scheduled this season in an afternoon slot, all on the road (March 6 @ OTT, March 26 @ SJS, April 2 @LA). If they can keep up the positive vibes today that they have experienced this season, this could be eight valuable points that would drastically effect the standings.
Next: Stars Host New York Rangers For Final Time This Year
The Stars hit the ice vs. the Rangers today at 3:00. Make sure you’ve got your TV tuned in for the early puck drop. It promises to be a good one!