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Since realignment occurred in the lock-out shortened season of 2012-2013, the Dallas Stars have played the Colorado Avalanche 22 times, evenly split between home and away games, before today.
The Stars home record against the Avalanche in that time: 6-2-3 (68% of available points)
The Stars road record against the Avalanche in that time: 3-8-0 (27% of available points)
To say the Mile High City has been unkind to Dallas would be underwhelming, to say the least. Because what doesn’t show in those records is the kinds of losses Dallas has had in Denver. To be kind, they’ve been on the wrong end of way too many offensive explosions by the Avalanche.
Some will point to altitude, others will point to how Dallas somehow always seems to travel to Denver on the tail-end of a western Canada road swing, and others will point to a lack of talent (in the earlier part of those realignment years) or goaltending (in the latter part of that time frame).
Whatever it is, Dallas will look to change their fortunes in Colorado tonight by recording a rare win a mile above sea level.
They’ve got the goaltending thing figured out right now with Ben Bishop looking quite strong to start the season and looking to backstop the Stars to their 5th game in a row. The scoring has picked up for Dallas during that win streak, never scoring less than 3 goals in a game in that time. Special teams are humming along nicely right now.
But it won’t be an easy win by any stretch.
Colorado is a little dinged up, with some key young players like Tyson Jost injured right now. But they’ve been fairly stout defensively, matching Dallas in goals against per game. They’re scoring at a relatively similar clip to the Stars, too. Special teams are where Dallas could make some hay tonight, as they face a mediocre power play and kind of uninspiring penalty kill.
This is the first of three road games versus the Avalanche this season. In a division that is tight already, and points come at a premium, going 0-3-0 against them could make a huge difference at the end of the season.
Time to exorcise some bad juju in Dallas tonight.