Dallas Stars Begin Homestand With Divisional Contest Against Blues
By Josh Clark
A season-long homestand starts tonight for the Dallas Stars at the American Airlines Center. They will welcome in the St. Louis Blues for a divisional showdown and will look to best them for the second time this week and start the stand on a strong note.
The Dallas Stars do not have a road game scheduled between now and the end of January. That’s six games of home cooking spread across three weeks, and it’s an opportunity that the Stars need to take advantage of.
As of Saturday morning, the Stars currently sit in third place in the Central division with a record of 23-18-4 and 50 points. But, the Central division race is only getting tighter, with the top five divisional teams currently holding playoff spots and only 11 points separating first from fifth. So, the time to build momentum is now.
“They’re important because you can make a little bit of a push and create some separation not only to try and climb within our own division, but separate from people potentially trying to chase you in the wild card position,” said head coach Jim Montgomery at morning skate.
Over the next eight days, Dallas will play four games at home. That includes visits from the Blues, Tampa Bay Lightning, Los Angeles Kings, and Winnipeg Jets. Following that, they will endure a ten-day break from hockey action before returning to the American Airlines Center on Jan. 30 for a matchup with the Buffalo Sabres. The homestand then closes out on Feb. 1 against the Minnesota Wild.
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That’s six games over a span of 21 days. And while a long break is enticing for a Dallas Stars team that has been on a consistent grind for the past two months, this next week is where the central focus lies.
“The points are huge and we need to focus on each game one at a time,” said captain Jamie Benn following Saturday’s skate. “So, tonight is St. Louis and we need to come out with a strong effort. I think we’ve done that for the most part this year, and we need to continue to do that here tonight.”
Tonight will bring the St. Louis Blues to town for the first time in the 2018-19 season. The Stars squared off with the Blues for the first time this year just five days ago at the Enterprise Center, with Dallas claiming the 3-1 win. But, even with the two points and two-goal deficit, the win was hardly a dominant one.
After building a 3-0 lead midway through the second period, the Stars let off of the gas pedal and allowed the Blues to try and fight their way back into the contest. They scored a goal late in the second period and outshot Dallas 12-2 in the final frame, but Ben Bishop held the line and secured the win for the Stars.
“I thought we played 40 minutes of pretty good hockey, but we need to close out better,” Benn said. “But, we got the job done and that’s what we went into St. Louis to do. For tonight, we probably need to continue with a strong start. Second periods have been pretty good for us this year, and we need to finish it off and play a full 60 minutes.”
On top of that, the Blues were wrapping up a back-to-back that had them playing in Philadelphia the night before. This time around, St. Louis hasn’t played since Thursday and should have more energy and motivation.
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“You can take a little bit structurally of how they play and how we can play better against it,” Monty said. “But also, we recognize that they didn’t have the energy level that they’re going to have tonight and that it’s going to be much harder physically. The pace of the game will be much higher than what it was Tuesday.”
This is a St. Louis Blues team that hasn’t lived up to expectations so far this season. After making a handful of notable acquisitions during the 2018 offseason, the Blues were heavily favored to finish in a top-three spot in the Central division. But through 42 games, they are 18-20-4 with 40 points and are tied for last in the division standings. They are scoring 2.81 goals per game (22nd in NHL) while giving up 3.14 goals against per game (21st in the NHL). Their power play sits below 20 percent and their penalty kill is below 80 percent.
Through the first half of the season, they simply cannot get everything to click.
But, that doesn’t mean that the Dallas Stars are taking them lightly, even amongst heavier competition scheduled for later in the week.
“Every point is big so we have to come out strong right away,” said Tyler Pitlick. “These are two big points and yeah, St. Louis is down in the standings, but they’re not a bad team; there’s not a bad team in the league. So, if you don’t show up ready to go, you’re going to get down quick and then you’re going to have to try and fight back. So, we need to be ready to go from the start and we’ve got to get these two points.”
The game against St. Louis kickstarts a busy week for the Stars. They will be visited on Tuesday by the Tampa Bay Lightning, who currently own the best record in the NHL, and will wrap it up on Saturday against the Winnipeg Jets, who currently lead the Central division. Playing against teams so vastly separated in the standings in a short amount of time can be a challenge, but it’s one that the Stars are prepared for.
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“I think that as a group, that is what we need to figure out how to do: to play our same style of game no matter who we’re playing against,” Pitlick said. “It’s definitely going to be a good test for us and I think we’re up for the challenge.”
“Obviously, a divisional tonight and a divisional against Winnipeg on Saturday,” said Jason Dickinson, who should return to the lineup this week. “These games are huge for us, especially going into that break where we can rest feeling great about our game and then keep it rolling off the break. If we go into the break holding our sticks tight, the break was all for nothing and we’re just back to where we were.”
The Stars had a full morning skate on Saturday morning and ran with these lines:
Jamie Benn – Tyler Seguin – Alexander Radulov
Mattias Janmark – Jason Spezza – Erik Condra
Tyler Pitlick – Radek Faksa – Blake Comeau
Devin Shore – Roope Hintz – Valeri Nichushkin
In addition, Ben Bishop was the first goaltender off the ice, signaling that he will start in tonight’s game. Bishop took the start in St. Louis on Tuesday and played well, posting a .963 save percentage and only giving up one goal.
This is a homestand where the Stars could make or break their season. They are 14-5-2 on home ice this season and are 3-0-1 in their last four games at the AAC. It’s a tough four-game slate with an extended break wedged in-between and offers the Dallas Stars a unique test. That all starts tonight against the Blues.
“For us, it’s four home games and we need to take advantage of the opportunity and try and get eight points,” Benn said.
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“These next six games are huge,” Pitlick added. “We have to take advantage of it because we have a homestand here. We have to take advantage of it and get those points. And then going into the break, we definitely have to take that rest. I think everyone is feeling pretty good, but we have to get that rest and be healthy and ready to go because once that break is over, it’s crunch time. So, we have to be ready to go.”