Last night the Dallas Stars got outworked rather severely by the New Jersey Devils sans Mike Cammalleri, but managed to pull a point out of the game by forcing the game into overtime with two third period goals. Patrick Sharp scored first after a wonderful play by John Klingberg that saw him do a spin-o-rama before feeding a cross-crease pass. Colton Sceviour would tie the game up with a shot from the point that appeared to go through at least the entire 50 members of the Devils Reserve List.
The Stars would lose on a powerplay goal by Devils defenseman John Moore after an overall lackluster showing in the overtime period. Ideally it won’t even get to that tonight, but the Stars will have their work cut out for them taking on the New York Islanders in Brooklyn.
The Islanders are currently second in the Metropolitan Division. In their last game out the Pittsburgh Penguins buried them early. It was 5-0 before the second period was even over. Much like the Stars, the Islanders will be looking to get back in the win column with a solid effort today.
Mike Heika has some special teams notes:
The Islanders rank second on the penalty kill at 87.3percent…The Stars rank fourth on the power play at 23.4 percent…New York ranks 29th in power play opportunities at 105.
Notably absent from the lineup for the Islanders recently have been goaltender Jaroslav Halak and defenseman Johnny Boychuk, Arthur Staple of Newsday reports that Halak could return today against the Stars, but as of this writing that has not been determined. Boychuck appears to definitely be out.
Seth Rorabaugh of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette noted these lines for the Islanders yesterday which, until shown otherwise, we’ll assume are pretty close to what they’ll roll with today:
27 Anders Lee -91 John Tavares – 12 Josh Bailey
86 Nikolai Kulemin – 51 Frans Nielsen – 21 Kyle Okposo
29 Brock Nelson – 84 Mikhail Grabovski – 18 Ryan Strome
17 Matt Martin – 53 Casey Cizikas – 15 Cal Clutterbuck2 Nick Leddy – 3 Travis Hamonic
44 Calvin de Haan – 37 Brian Strait
14 Thomas Hickey – 28 Marek Zidlicky
Going out on a limb we’ll assume that Lindy Ruff is going to juggle the lines today so as of now there is no telling how the Stars will line up when the puck drops.
From the wonderful folks at Stars PR:
NO SLEEP TILL BROOKLYN:
The Dallas Stars play the first of two games during the 2015-16 campaign against the New York Islanders on Sundayafternoon on the second night of an Eastern Conference back-to-back. Tonight marks the first time in franchise history that Dallas will play at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. The Stars split the season series last year against the Islanders (1-1-0) with each club recording a victory on home ice. Dallas has recorded victories in four of its last six games (4-2-0) on the road against the Islanders, losing the most recent game, 7-5, on Oct. 25, 2014 at Nassau Coliseum. The Stars had three players record multi-point games in last season’s defeat including Tyler Seguin (1-1=2), Jason Spezza (1-1=2) and Alex Goligoski (0-2=2).
OH CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN:
Stars captain Jamie Benn recorded two points (1-1=2) on New Year’s Eve against the Nashville Predators and now has points in seven straight games (4-7=11), tied for the longest active point streak in the NHL with teammate Patrick Sharp. He has recorded an assist in seven consecutive games, setting a new career-best assist streak and owns the longest active assist streak in the NHL. Benn ranks second in League with 52 points (24-28=52) and his 24 goals are the most in the League. He also leads the NHL with a +23 plus/minus rating. The native of Victoria, B.C. finished the 2015 calendar year as the highest scoring player in the NHL with 107 points (48-59=107). Benn had 55 points (24-31=55) in 46 games during the 2015 portion of the 2014-15 season and this season has 52 points (24-28=52) in 39 games. Benn has tallied at least one point in 42 of his last 54 games (36-41=77) dating back to last season. Since being named captain before the start of the 2013-14 season, Benn has tallied a point in 135 of 202 games (93-125=218), the most games with a point of any NHL skater over that span. The captain has points in two straight games (0-2=2) against the Islanders and points in four of his last five contests (2-3=5). In eight career games, he has registered seven points (3-4=7).
LOOKIN’ SHARP:
Stars forward Patrick Sharp recorded an assist (0-1=1) against the Nashville Predators on Thursday night and now has points in seven consecutive games (4-6=10), tied for the longest active point streak in the NHL. His seven-game point streak marks his best as a member of the Dallas Stars and his longest since he recorded points in a career-best nine games (7-6=13) from Nov. 29 – Dec. 18, 2011 as a member of the Chicago Blackhawks. Sharp currently ranks third on the club with 14 goals this season and ranks fourth in points (32) and assists (18). The native of Winnipeg, Man. has points in five of his last seven games (4-5=9) against the Islanders. He has tallied 13 points (8-5=13) in 15 career games against them.
TYLER SEGUIN’S HOUSE OF PAYNE: Stars forward Tyler Seguin recorded two goals (2-0=2) on Thursday night against the Predators and now has goals in three of his last four games (4-0=4). Seguin ranks third in the NHL with 50 points (23-27=50) and shares second with 23 goals this season. He also shares fifth with 27 assists and comes into Saturday’s game with points in 17 of his last 23 games (14-13=27). The native of Brampton, Ont. shares second in the NHL with 25 points (15-10=25) on the road this season and ranked first with 15 goals in 19 road contests. Seguin has played 20 games against Eastern Conference opponents during the 2015-16 season and has recorded 32 points (16-16=32) with a +17 plus/minus rating. He has points in three of his last five games (2-3=5) against the Islanders along with registering at least a point in eight of his last 11 games (6-7=13). Seguin has 13 points (6-7=13) in 12 games against the Islanders.