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Dallas Stars Look to Antti Niemi to Backstop Recent Skid Upon Return Home

Antti Niemi will get the start in net tonight, as the Dallas Stars take on the Edmonton Oilers on home ice. They return home after a demonstrably bad road skid, and hope to turn their fortunes around starting tonight.

One thing to watch tonight will be the line match-ups Lindy Ruff deploys. Ruff, who has last change as an advantage to being at home, ran lines like this in morning skate:

Antoine RousselMattias JanmarkAles Hemsky
Jamie BennTyler SeguinPatrick Sharp
Valeri NichushkinCody EakinJason Spezza
Colton SceviourVernon FiddlerPatrick Eaves

It’s possible that Ruff could look to give the Janmark line some of the typical offensive zone starts the first line usually sees as a reward for their play in Los Angeles on Tuesday night. That line created quite a bit in their own zone. The GQ line may be deployed against easier competition in an effort to get them going again offensively. That Eakin line is made up of a lot of puck possession and puck hounding, which Ruff could use as an offensive transition unit, to get the puck in their own zone more.

Travis Moen is the anticipated scratch at forward.

On defense, the pairings remain the same among the top four D, though the bottom pair will see a different look tonight:

Alex GoligoskiJohn Klingberg
Johnny OduyaJason Demers
Jyrki JokipakkaEsa Lindell

Patrik Nemeth will be scratched again, though that isn’t necessarily a big surprise given that his pairing was absolutely destroyed in possession on Tuesday night with relatively easier minutes. While Lindell was a part of that, the thought here is that the Stars may want to see more of what Lindell can do with his size.

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