Again, we sit here and look at a series in which the Dallas Stars had opportunities and let them slip away. One point out of a possible four is not the way to get back into a playoff hunt. But who are we kidding. This team is not a playoff team right now for a reason. They are struggling in the worst way. And it’s hard to blame injuries even though I know they’ve had their share. But who hasn’t? With a condensed schedule everyone is battling injuries this year.
Home cooking didn’t help so maybe the old adage about the road galvanizing a team can do the trick. It’s going to have to. Dallas plays their next six games away from the American Airlines Center. That’s a possible 12 points Dallas can pick up over their next six games. Currenlty they sit six points behind the Nashville Predators for the final playoff spot in the Central Division.
Coincidentally the Stars begin a two game series in Nashville tonight. If that doesn’t show how important this trip is, perhaps you should look at the team that is tied with Nashville at 37 points. That would be the Chicago Blackhawks and another team Dallas will visit on this six-game road trip. Points are in high demand right now and Dallas needs to start collecting them sooner rather than later.
Potential Lines for Dallas:
Jason Robertson (21) – Roope Hintz (24) – Joe Pavelski
Jamie Benn (14) – Jason Dickinson (18) – Denis Gurianov (34)
Andrew Cogliano (11) – Radek Faksa (12) – Blake Comeau (15)
Rhett Gardner (49) – Justin Dowling (37) – Joel L’Esperance (38)
Esa Lindell (23) – John Klingberg (3)
Jamie Oleksiak (2) – Miro Heiskanen (4)
Joel Hanley (44) – Andrej Sekera (5)
Jake Oettinger (29)
Anton Khudobin (35)
The Nashville Predators
Since the two wins to open the season against the Predators, Nashville has won the last two in shootouts. With still four games against each other, there is ground to be made up if your the Stars and that’s all you can ask for at this point in the season.
The three teams directly in front of Dallas (including Nashville) each have played four games more than the Stars.
The Predators have been struggling offensively like the Stars. They only have two players with at least 20 points (Filip Forsberg and Roman Josi) and only two players with at least 10 goals (Filip Forsberg and Calle Jarnkrok).
Pekka Rinne has been allowing right at three goals per game while Juuse Saros is under two and a half.
Probable lines for Nashville
Eeli Tolvanen (28) – Ryan Johansen (92) – Viktor Arvidsson (33)
Calle Jarnkrok (19) – Mikael Granlund (64) – Luke Kunin (11)
Rocco Grimaldi (23) – Erik Haula (56) – Nick Cousins (21)
Yakov Trenin (13) – Colton Sissons (10) – Mathieu Olivier (25)
Mattias Elkholm (14) – Alexandre Carrier (45)
Roman Josi (59) – Dante Fabbro (57)
Ben Harpur (17) – Matthew Benning (5)
Juuse Saros (74)
Pekka Rinne (35)