Dallas Stars Can Restart Momentum Against Florida Panthers

The road trip continues on Tuesday night for the Dallas Stars as they square off with the Florida Panthers in Sunrise. It will be the Stars’ first look at the Panthers this season and give them an opportunity to regain momentum.

The NHL is one of the few leagues in professional sports where every team meets up with each other at least two times during the regular season. It’s a rare opportunity that gives each club a chance to size up the talent from across the league on multiple occasions as they prepare for the playoff race. And on Tuesday night, it provides the Dallas Stars with an opportunity to regain momentum.

The Stars will be in Sunrise, Florida tonight as they take on the Florida Panthers for the first time this season. The Panthers are one of only two teams that the Stars have yet to face in the 2018-19 regular season, with the other being the Carolina Hurricanes.

This game is the third installment in a five-game road trip for Dallas, who has posted a record of 0-1-1 on the swing so far. Following the game against the Panthers, the Stars will head to Tampa Bay for a Thursday night matchup with the Lightning and wrap the trip up on Saturday against the Hurricanes.

In terms of Tuesday’s matchup, however, it’s a chance for the Dallas Stars to regain the momentum that they used to start the month of February. Prior to this recent two-game skid, the Stars had won five games in a row. Their victories came against some of the better teams in the NHL, including Nashville and Winnipeg. But, there was a common thread between the wins: all but one of them came at the American Airlines Center.

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At 10-14-3, the Stars are the only team currently sitting in a playoff spot with a record below .500 on the road. If they want to qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs and make a run, their road play will have to improve. After all, 14 of their final 27 regular season games will be played away from home.

Tonight is a chance to improve on that. It’s also a chance to outdo a middle-ground team in the Eastern Conference that is desperately trying to stay alive in the playoff race.

Coming into Tuesday night, the Panthers are 23-23-8 with 54 points. They sit 11 points out of the final wild card spot in the East. And though they have two games in hand, it’s already crunch time in Sunrise.

Now, there are certain aspects of this Florida team that are respectable and even dangerous. For one, they own the second-best power play in the league at 26.5 percent. Their penalty kill sits at 80.8 percent and their offense connects for 3.07 goals per game, both of which are good enough for 13th in the NHL.

The Panthers traded for Derick Brassard a few weeks back, and the forward already has one goal and three points in five games with his new club. Mike Hoffman, Aleksander Barkov, and Jonathan Huberdeau are all surging for the Florida offense and Roberto Luongo just moved into second all-time in games started by an NHL goalie.

But, that’s where their weakness lies: the defensive end. The Panthers currently give up the third-most goals of any team in the NHL at 3.43. That’s a deflating number for the defense to boast and leaves a lot to be desired both from the blue line and the crease.