Dallas Stars Can Bounce Back And Break St. Louis Losing Streak

The city of St. Louis has not been friendly to the Dallas Stars over the past few seasons. But tonight, they get a shot at redemption and a chance to rebound from a disappointing loss to start a critical week.

The Dallas Stars had Monday off to take a rest and recharge. And after the grueling week they had just been through, it was a needed break.

It’s not getting any easier for the Stars scheduling-wise as they continue pushing through their 2018-19 campaign. Dallas, who played a four-game homestand from Dec. 29 – Jan. 4 (seven days), are currently in the midst of another four-game week. They are 22-17-4 with 48 points on the year and are in the thick of the playoff race.

But, the standings are always shifting. On Sunday morning, the Dallas Stars sat in third place in the Central division. They were set to kick off a three-game road trip in Winnipeg against the Jets after spending more than one week at home for the first time since mid-November. It was a critical game against a divisional opponent that would start up an important January stretch for the team.

The Stars ended up falling short in a 5-1 loss. The two points dropped in the division effectively removed Dallas from third as the Colorado Avalanche reclaimed their spot. Dallas slipped back into the first wild card spot and put themselves closer to the brink. And while they have a three-point lead on the Minnesota Wild (who own the second spot), the Wild have two games in hand. Simply put, the race is still a tight one and every game matters. That was true about the game against Winnipeg on Sunday, and the Stars came up short.

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It’s also true about the week ahead. Dallas has three contests scheduled between now and Saturday night, and all three are against teams sitting in a bottom-five spot in the NHL standings. That’s a chance to get ahead against struggling teams, but is also a chance to fail at valuable opportunities to pick up points if they aren’t prepared.

The stretch starts tonight against the St. Louis Blues at the Enterprise Center. The Blues are 17-19-4 with 38 points on the season and are 3-3-0 since the NHL Holiday Break. They were in action last night in Philadelphia, where they picked up a 3-0 win over the Philadelphia Flyers. Now, the Blues will swing back to St. Louis for the second half of a back-to-back.

St. Louis is enduring a heavy amount of struggles this year after having high hopes set for them in the preseason. The Blues took an aggressive approach to the 2018 summer, signing depth forwards like Pat Maroon and even trading for star center Ryan O’Reilly in a blockbuster deal. Those moves had the Blues, who missed the 2018 Stanley Cup Playoffs by one point, poised to make a big run and jump back into the Central division fight.

That hasn’t happened. With their defense and goaltending giving up 3.20 goals against per game and their offense doing just slightly better than the Stars’ offense (which is saying something), St. Louis is struggling to even stay afloat in a competitive Western Conference.

The Stars will see the Blues twice in the next five days, with the second contest scheduled for Saturday night in Dallas. Their only other contest comes on Thursday night in Philadelphia.

This is a chance for the Stars to gain some valuable ground and keep themselves in the race for a top-three spot. But for that to happen, they will have to get over their recent struggles in St. Louis.