It’s been two and a half weeks since the Dallas Stars took to the ice. That was a 7-4 win against the Minnesota Wild. Since then, the Stars have had six games postponed due to Covid. Tonight they get back to playing hockey.
I’m not going to pretend to act like I know what the Stars need to do tonight. I haven’t watched them play since December 20th just like everyone else. The issue is this, though. The team they’re playing tonight, the Florida Panthers, only had four games postponed. To make things worse, the Panthers have played four games since last Wednesday and they’ve won all four of them.
Obviously the Stars may come out rusty. They did win their last two games before the shutdown happened. It’ll be interesting to see if they can make it three in a row with such a long layoff. They will get their games against Florida out of the way pretty quick too. After tonight, these two teams will play again next Friday (January 14th) in Miami.
Potential Dallas Lines:
Jason Robertson (21) – Roope Hintz (24) – Joe Pavelski (16)
Denis Gurianov (34) – Jamie Benn (14) – Tyler Seguin (91)
Joel Kiviranta (25) – Jacob Peterson (40) – Alexander Radulov (47)
Michael Raffl (18) – Radek Faksa (12) – Luke Glendening (11)
Ryan Suter (20) – John Klingberg (3)
Esa Lindell (23) – Miro Heiskanen (4)
Thomas Harley (55) – Jani Hakanpaa (2)
Braden Holtby (70)
Jake Oettinger (29)
The Florida Panthers
The Panthers have an incredible record this season of 22-7-4. Their 48 points are good enough for second place in the Atlantic Standings. They’re one point out of first but have two games in hand against the division-leading Tampa Bay Lightning.
Before their four-game postponement, the Panthers lost three games in a row. They were outscored 15-5 in those three games. Things turned around, though, as they have won four in a row coming out of the postponements. They’ve outscored their opponents 24-10 in those four games.
Right now their offense is clicking. They have four guys that have at least 10 or more goals. They have six guys with at least 20 points, and Jonathan Huberdeau leads the team with 42 points in 33 games.
Potential Florida Lines
Carter Verhaeghe (23) – Aleksander Barkov (16) – Maxim Mamin (98)
Jonathan Huberdeau (11) – Anton Lundell (15) – Anthony Duclair (10)
Frank Vatrano (77) – Joe Thornton (19) – Owen Tippett (74)
Ryan Lemberg (94) – Eetu Luostarinen (27) – Patric Hornqvist (70)
MacKenzie Weegar (52) – Aaron Ekblad (5)
Gustav Forsling (42) – Radko Gudas (7)
Lucas Carlsson (32) – Brandon Montour (62)
Sergei Bobrovsky (72)
Jonas Johansson (35)