Dallas Stars Continue Road Trip In Edmonton Against ‘Loose’ Oilers

The Dallas Stars will look for their seventh consecutive road win and third on their current road trip tonight in Edmonton. But if they want a big win that could push them closer to a playoff spot, they will have to go through a loose Oilers team playing to spoil.

It’s only been 365 days since the Dallas Stars were wrapping up one of the worst late-season meltdowns in NHL history.

After fervently building their playoff cause though the first 65 games of the 2017-18 regular season, the Stars sank into a skid in the final month of the year that buried their hopes. Dallas trudged through an 0-6-2 slump from March 11-25 and slipped from third in the Central division to a handful of points outside of the final wild card spot.

Two winless weeks dragged them down from presumable playoff locks to long shot playoff contenders and helped put a staple in another disappointing year.

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But, fast forward to the current side of things and the Stars find themselves in a remarkably different position.

After falling into a haze of uncertainty following a 1-3-1 homestand last week, Dallas has capitalized in the best way possible through the first half of a four-game road trip.

They started things off on Monday evening with a 5-2 win over the Central-leading Winnipeg Jets. The Stars used speed and an offensive assault to their advantage and picked up a big two points to get back into the win column. Two nights later, they knocked off the Pacific-leading Calgary Flames with a 2-1 victory that required a battle with intense adversity.

The two wins helped push the Dallas Stars to 40-31-6 with 86 points and spiked their odds of qualifying for the playoffs to 99.2 percent. That’s an impressive leap from last season’s meltdown.

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But the race isn’t over yet. The Stars’ magic number now sits at five, meaning any combination of five points gained by Dallas or lost by the team with the ninth-highest points potential in the Western Conference will give the Stars a spot in the postseason.

And though the magic number is slim and the odds are within one percent of assured, there is still work to be done. That includes simply clinching a postseason berth as well as fighting for the best possible seeding before first round action begins.

That’s where Thursday night’s game can help. Less than 24 hours after wrapping up a win in Calgary, the Stars will be back in action tonight against the Edmonton Oilers as the road trip rolls on.

It’s a big game for a few different reasons.

Thursday marks the third and final time this year that the Dallas Stars and Edmonton Oilers will meet up. The Oilers secured a 1-0 overtime win back on Nov. 27 at Rogers Place, but the Stars responded six days later with a 4-1 win in Dallas.

You could say, however, that Dallas and Edmonton are both much different now than they were in December. Back in 2018, both clubs were still in the thick of the Western Conference playoff race and trying to generate some consistency.

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And while the Stars now own highly favorable odds of making the cut, the Oilers are on life support. Their odds sit at 0.4 percent with six games remaining on their regular season schedule. The Oilers currently sit seven points out of the final wild card spot and only have 12 points left on the table. A “win out” and some significant help from the four teams above them would be needed  at this point in order for the Oilers to work their way back into the picture.

Head coach Todd McLellan was fired in mid-November and replaced by Ken Hitchcock. GM Peter Chiarelli joined McLellan on the chopping block in mid-January. And with the massive overhaul looming, a dysfunctional and lacking Oilers lineup couldn’t find its way back into the postseason race.

Their offense sits 19th in the NHL in goals per game at 2.87 (though they scored eight in their game on Tuesday night), while their defense sits 24th in goals against (3.30). Their power play is a top-ten unit, but their penalty kill is second-worst.

But this is still a dangerous Oilers team. With their playoff hopes practically non-existent, they will play for pride and look to serve as a spoiler in their final six games.

“You know they’re going to be loose, they’re going to play probably a little more risk in their game than we are going to, at least I hope, we are going to,” Stars coach Jim Montgomery told Derek Van Diest of NHL.com on Thursday morning. “That lends to creativity and it makes it harder to defend.”

The Oilers can play a looser style and use more creativity and risk in their game because, well, there’s no consequences that could follow. Meanwhile, the Stars have to stick to their game plan and continue pressing towards the postseason. They don’t have any room for risk and certainly don’t need any. But that’s where Edmonton could hurt them.

It’s another critical game for the Dallas Stars. They will go for the franchise record in consecutive wins on the road after tying the current record of six on Wednesday night. It’s a chance to continue their hot streak on the road and keep their footing against a different caliber of opponent than the one they’ve gone up against so far on the trip.

And finally, it’s a chance to further trim their magic number down to three or four and inch all the more closer to a secured playoff berth.

Puck drop is scheduled for 8:00 p.m. from Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta.