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When the Dallas Stars take on the Carolina Hurricanes tonight at American Airlines Center, it’ll feel a lot like looking in the mirror.
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Both teams are pacing fairly close to each other in terms of offense, possession metrics, defense, and goaltending. Dallas holds a slight edge in special teams, being more potent on the power play and more stringent on the penalty kill.
With as hot as both goaltenders have been for their respective teams, a goaltending dual tonight is not outside the realm of possibility. Both Ben Bishop and Scott Darling sit near the top of the league in goals against averages. A product both of how well they’re playing as individuals, as evidenced by their save percentages, and the stout defensives they’re playing behind. For a change, if Darling looks like the best player on the Hurricanes roster tonight, it may not be a factor of Dallas making him look that way (unlike past games this season).
It’s also possible that both teams bust out on offense.
For Carolina, their offense seems to come in bursts - they’ve scored 4, 1, 1, 5, and 2 goals in their games so far. Dallas is a little different, scoring 1, 2, 4, 1, 3, 3, and 5 goals in their games so far. Their offensive output seems to be on the upswing, clipping along at the pace in the last three games most would expect them to be at for the season.
The Stars are riding a three game win streak. It’s a feat they didn’t manage basically ever last season. So less than 10 games into the new season, they’ve already improved on that. They’ll look to grab another win and extend that streak after an uneven start to the season.
On the other side, the Hurricanes will be looking to start a win streak of their own. They’ve won their last two games, both of which came against western conference Canadian teams (Edmonton Oilers, Calgary Flames). They’re on the last night of a 4-game road trip.
Puck drop is at 7 PM CDT tonight in Dallas, with the game being televised locally on Fox Sports Southwest Plus, as the 0-2 Dallas Mavericks are taking on the Houston Rockets tonight in humid Houston and getting top billing on Fox Sports Southwest proper.
As always, you can listen in on The Ticket (1310 AM / 96.7 FM) or stream it live on the Fox Sports Go app.