Stars Look to Shine in the Home Opener

After a commanding 4-1 win to start to the regular season, the Dallas Stars are at home tonight against Thursday night’s opponents, the Nashville Predators. This will be the middle of three games against division rivals to start the regular season.

Now, the Predators are currently ahead of the Stars in the standings, because the games played in Europe were part of the regular season. Which means the San Jose Sharks, who lost twice to the Predators and then lost to the Hurricanes last night, are currently scraping the bottom of the NHL barrel with three losses.

Stars That Shine

Mason Marchment, star of the preseason, continued his stardom with two goals on Thursday night, putting him on pace for 164 goals this season. That’s gotta be a record. He is expected to make a big impact in the top six this season and he’s done nothing but make a case for himself so far.

Wyatt Johnston scored his first goal in his first game after being drafted in first round in 2021. The Stars will have to make a decision after nine games as to whether to keep him in Dallas or send him down to the Texas Stars.

Jake Oettinger played like he’d never left the ice, saving 31 of 32 shots on goal. Even diving into the data, the Stars did a better job at keeping the Predators out of the high danger areas in front of the net than the Predators did. All four of the Stars’ goals came from below the face-off dots. The Predators’ lone goal came from above.

Predators that . . . Predate

Ryan Johansen scored a goal in the last five minutes? Roman Josi and Alexandre Carrier were their most effective defensive pairing by far, but they spent most of the night paired against Marchment, Tyler Seguin, and Ty Dellandrea, who still managed to score on them.

Expected Lineups

Predators projected lineup

Filip Forsberg — Mikael Granlund — Matt Duchene
Nino Niederreiter — Ryan Johansen — Eeli Tolvanen
Yakov Trenin — Colton Sissons — Tanner Jeannot
Cole Smith — Michael McCarron — Zach Sanford

Roman Josi — Alexandre Carrier
Ryan McDonagh — Mattias Ekholm
Jeremy Lauzon — Dante Fabbro

Juuse Saros
Kevin Lankinen

Scratched: Kiefer Sherwood, Mark Borowiecki, Michael McCarron

Stars projected lineup

Jason Robertson — Roope Hintz — Joe Pavelski
Mason Marchment — Tyler Seguin — Ty Dellandrea
Jamie Benn — Wyatt Johnston — Denis Gurianov
Joel Kiviranta — Radek Faksa — Luke Glendening

Miro Heiskanen — Colin Miller
Esa Lindell — Nils Lundkvist
Ryan Suter — Jani Hakanpaa

Jake Oettinger
Scott Wedgewood

Scratched: Jacob Peterson, Joel Hanley

Where to Watch

Puck drop will be at 7 pm on BallySports Southwest and The Tickkt 96.7 FM with Josh Bogorad and Daryl Reaugh.