Yesterday, Rob wrote about how the Dallas Stars were looking for consistency heading into their matchup against the Columbus Blue Jackets. They ended up losing their sixth consecutive game that headed into overtime, making them 1-7 after 60 minutes for the season. So technically they were consistent? Just not in the way you’d hope for.
There’s no sugar coating the playoff picture — it looks bleak. Dallas has six games in hand on the Blue Jackets (5th) and Chicago Blackhawks (4th), but are behind by 6 and 11 points respectively. Optimists will try and point out that at least the Stars have been banking “loser points” to help them stay in the race, but you know who else is among the top of the division in overtime losses? That’s right: Chicago and Columbus.
With a shortened and compact season, the Stars are running out of time fast. Like the past several games, today’s rematch against the Columbus Blue Jackets should tell us a lot about the Stars. Are they really a potential playoff team? Or are they closer to joining the Nashville Predators and Detroit Red Wings at the top of the NHL Entry Draft?
Puck drops at 4:00 PM CDT.
Stars Lineup
Expect Dallas to roll with something similar to last night:
Robertson — Pavelski — Kiviranta
Benn — Dickinson — Gurianov
Cogliano — Faksa — Comeau
Caamano — Gardner — L’Esperance
Lindell — Klingberg
Oleksiak — Heiskanen
Hanley — Sekera
According to Rick Bowness, Roope Hintz and Alexander Radulov are both possibilities for tonight’s game as well. Should Radulov be healthy, it would be his first game since February 4th, over a month ago.
Anton Khudobin is expected to get the start in net.
Update: Alexander Radulov has been taken off of IR and is expected to play today.
We’ve activated forward Alexander Radulov from Injured Reserved and reassigned Joel L’Esperance to the Taxi Squad. #GoStars
— Dallas Stars (@DallasStars) March 14, 2021