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Dallas Stars Daily Links: Stars Hope To Avoid Bye Week Letdown

Dallas had a strenuous practice yesterday after bye week. Weekly Mailbag, Justin Dowling milestone and Pens want to keep Fleury

By Shawn Ladd
NHL: Minnesota Wild at Dallas Stars Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

Dallas ended their bye week with a strenuous practice yesterday as the get ready to host Arizona tonight. The Stars last played Saturday a 4-3 OT win against the Lightning.

"The one thing that I worry about is teams with time off, the hands, the passing and the execution part, suffers," Stars coach Lindy Ruff said. "Some players will skate on their own, some don't, but some of it is just not being out there as a group working together. That little bit of time away obviously has hurt all of the teams."

Teams coming off a bye week have a combined record or 4-12-4 and -30 goal differential. Captain Jamie Benn hopes the Stars can buck that trend.

"Hopefully we can change that and get a win," I think when you're going pretty consistently, playing every other day, it seems normal. Then, when you get five days off, it's not the norm. You have to be mentally ready to go. I think the main focus was get our speed back and do everything quick out there on the ice. We had five days to rest and kind of mellow out, so we need to get our brains going, get our feet moving again, and get back."

The rest here. (Sports Day DMN)

The Stars have a 7 game winning streak against tonight’s opponent the Arizona Coyotes. The Coyotes had a strong 1st period with the Blackhawks last night but 3 unanswered goals by the Hawks did them in losing 6-3. Your preview. (Stars Inside Edge)

Sean Shapiro held his weekly mailbag session. Topics included Cody Eakin on the top line, Brett Ritchie and potential Stars goalies. (Wrong Side of the Red Line)

Curtis McKenzie and Justin Dowling will be Class 6 unrestrictive free agents come July 1st as their contracts expire. This article has an explanation of the different classes of FA. (Winging it in Motown)

Texas Stars:

Justin Dowling hit a milestone on Wednesday.

ECHL:

The ECHL will be losing a team next season when the Alaska Aces will cease to exist after this season. A declining economy in the state made it impossible for the 3 time Kelly Cup champs to continue. (FanRag Sports)

NHL: Calgary Flames at Nashville Predators Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports

Should the Predators be playing goalie Juuse Saros more than veteran Pekka Rinne down the stretch? Saros has a better save percentage than Rinne while facing harder shots. (FanRag Sports)

One of the biggest names that keeps coming up in trade talks is the Blues Kevin Shattenkirk. The power play specialist is in the final year of his contract, reportedly turned down a deal that would have sent him to an unnamed club. (St Louis Post-Dispatch)

With the trade deadline a week away from today a look at what is each teams trade chips in the power rankings. (Sportsnet)

This years Calder Cup race is between Auston Matthews and Patrick Laine, but here are some other rookies that are putting up some good numbers. (The Hockey News)

It looks like one of the goalie trade options for the Stars has been taken off the table. Penguins GM Jim Rutherford said yesterday that he would prefer to hold onto Marc-Andre Fleury. (NBCSN)

Finally Islanders rookie Anthony Beauvillier brought a tear to his Dad’s eye with a goal in his hometown of Montreal yesterday.