Dallas Stars Juggling Lines vs. Vegas In Hopes Of Continued Success

The Dallas Stars are shaking up their lines tonight in hopes of finding some offensive consistency. This plan has worked well for the team this year, so it’ll be interesting to see if it works against Vegas as well.

The top line will look a little bit different for the Dallas Stars tonight, but this is nothing new.

The Stars will welcome the Vegas Golden Knights to the AAC tonight in hopes of breaking a two-game losing skid. This two-game streak is coming directly on the heels of a five-game win streak for Dallas.

Over the past week, however, the Stars have looked flat and unmotivated. They lost to the Nashville Predators and St. Louis Blues, two teams who are currently sitting ahead of them in the standings. The losses showed that Dallas still has work to do on their way to becoming one of the top teams in the Central Division.

But they also showed that the Stars need to fix something and fix it quick. They were outscored 8-2 over the last two games and have some visible flaws in their game. One of the most evident flaws was their lack of offensive pressure and scoring efficiency.

Dallas Stars

That’s why head coach Ken Hitchcock made some adjustments in today’s morning skate in preparation for tonight. The Stars offense will look moderately different than it did on Thursday against the Blues, and it all starts with the first line.

Hitchcock mentioned in the postgame interview on Thursday that he was not getting any offensive help from any of his lines except the Radek Faksa line. That is exactly why he made some changes to the lineup.

On Thursday night, the Stars had Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin, and Alexander Radulov running the top line just like they had done at the beginning of the year. But since then, there have been plenty of different first line combinations. Tonight, they will have yet another juggle.

Here is the Dallas Stars’ projected offensive lineup for tonight against Vegas.

Jamie Benn – Tyler Seguin – Devin Shore

Mattias Janmark – Jason Spezza – Alexander Radulov

Antoine Roussel – Radek Faksa – Tyler Pitlick

Remi Elie – Gemel Smith – Brett Ritchie

The bottom six looks relatively similar, and that’s likely due to the fact that their efforts and contributions are at a decent level so far. Roussel has missed the last four games due to the flu, but has two points in his last three games played.

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The top line is where everything is jumbled. Alexander Radulov will play on the second line for the first time this season, breaking apart from both Benn and Seguin. Radulov has yet to play a game this season without at least Benn or Seguin beside him. He will be replaced by Devin Shore, who has three goals and 13 points in 29 games but brings a lot of energy and grit in his play.

Meanwhile, no. 47 will skate on the second line with Janmark and Spezza. He’ll have a good combination of speed and skill along with veteran instincts beside him, so he should fit right in.

But this is yet another instance in which the Stars have juggled their lines this season in hopes of generating a quick turnaround. So far, it’s worked pretty well.

Ken Hitchcock’s unpredictability and dedication to doing whatever is necessary to win is an important factor in this. But it’s also the ability of the forwards to adapt on the fly to playing with different teammates.

Next: Stars Need More Faksa-Like Players In Their Lineup

The Dallas Stars offense is showing off yet another new side tonight against a Vegas team that has won three in a row. Will it once again pay off and give them a much-needed boost?