We all knew the Dallas Stars wouldn’t go 82-0-0 this season and Thursday’s loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs certainly felt inevitable with all the Stars’ trips to the penalty box. At least it was an overtime loss?
The Stars have a chance to bounce back tonight on the road against the Montreal Canadiens. The two teams have split the last ten games against each other.
Stars
Despite Thursday’s loss, the Stars are going for their fourth win in five games and have had a rip-roaring start to the season. They are currently averaging 4.33 goals a game, something they would have killed for in the last few seasons, and Jake Oettinger currently has the third best save percentage at .966. He’s also tied for second in goals against per game at 1.
They’re also currently leading the league in goals against average at 1.50 and are 8th in shots against among teams that have played 4+ games.
The Stars had Scott Wedgewood in the net on Thursday, he saved 40 of 43 shots for a .930 save percentage. The extra time the 16 penalty minutes to Toronto’s 8 didn’t do him any favors.
Lines:
Jason Robertson – Roope Hintz – Joe Pavelski
Mason Marchment – Tyler Seguin – Denis Gurianov
Jamie Benn – Wyatt Johnston- Ty Dellandrea
Radek Faksa – Luke Glendening – Joel Kiviranta
Miro Heiskanen – Colin Miller
Ryan Suter – Jani Hakanpää
Esa Lindell – Nils Lundkvist
Jake Oettinger
Canadiens
The Canadiens have also been having a good start to the season and tonight will be looking for their third consecutive win, and fourth in the six games they will have played this season.
Their current goals per game average is only two, but they scored six goals on 30 shots against the Arizona Coyotes on Thursday night. Their goals against average is 2.60 and they’ve been getting good goaltending out of veteran Jake Allen, who is 2-1-0 with a 2.03 goals against average.
The Canadiens are currently unbeaten at home.
Lines:
Cole Caufield – Nick Suzuki – Sean Monahan
Evgenii Dadonov – Christian Dvorak – Brendan Gallagher
Jonathan Drouin – Kirby Dach – Josh Anderson
Rem Pitlick – Jake Evans – Mike Hoffman
Kaiden Guhle – David Savard
Jordan Harris – Johnathan Kovacevic
Arber Xhekaj – Chris Wideman
Jake Allen
Where To Watch
Puck drop is at 6 pm CST on BallySports Southwest or 96.7 The Ticket.