To borrow an opening line from the last Dallas Stars preview: Twelve games into the season, the Dallas Stars remain the only team in the NHL without a regulation victory.
Is it bad all the way down? Well, nothing is. But it’s certainly concerning by the twelfth regular season game. The puzzling thing about Wednesdays game is that, on paper, they were the better team. They had an advantage in shots on goal, shot attempts on goal, and face-off wins. They killed the only penalty they took and scored on one of three power play opportunities.
The difference? They couldn’t find the back of the net. After the 4-2 loss to the Predators, the Stars had a 30 minute players only meeting in the locker room, after which Stars head coach Rick Bowness told the media that he knew what was wrong and how to fix it. Whether that’s true remains to be seen.
With Tanner Kero and Blake Comeau on loan to the Texas Stars, Riley Tufte and Jacob Peterson have been called up to Dallas. Tufte, the 25th overall pick in the 2016 draft, will be making his NHL debut. He has seven points in ten games with the Texas Stars. At 6’6” and 220 pounds, Tufte will also be adding a lot of bulk to the line up.
Peterson earned a spot on the opening roster this season and scored a goal in his debut with the Stars in the season opener. It was his only point in the six games he spent up in Dallas, but he’s had success down with the AHL team and will get another chance tonight.
Jake Oettinger is also making the drive up I-35 today, as Adam Scheel is reassigned to Texas.
Stars lines at this morning’s practice:
Jason Robertson (21) – Roope Hintz (24) – Joe Pavelski (16)
Jacob Peterson (40) – Tyler Seguin (91) – Alexander Radulov (47)
Michael Raffl (18) – Jamie Benn (14) – Denis Gurianov (34)
Riley Tufte (27) – Radek Faksa (12) – Luke Glendening (11)
Ryan Suter (20) – John Klingberg (3)
Esa Lindell (23) – Miro Heiskanen (4)
Andrej Sekera (5)- Jani Hakanpaa (2)
Joel Hanley (44) – Joel Kiviranta (25)
Anton Khudobin (35) will be in net.
The Philadelphia Flyers are having an okay start to the season. They’re six points ahead of the Stars in the standings, but are having their own scoring woes, frequently outshot by their opponents. The Stars have struggled to score multiple goals in a game but have yet to be shut out while the Flyers have been shut out twice.
Their hope lies in Carter Hart shaking off his poor performance last season and repeating the first two years of his career with the Flyers, which so far has been working in their favor.
The Flyers played last night against the Carolina Hurricanes, coming back from a 1-0 deficit at the start of the third to win 2-1 in regulation.
No official word yet, but the lines could look very much the same as last night:
Claude Giroux (28) – Sean Couterier (14) – Travis Konecny (11)
Joel Farabee (86) – Scott Laughton (21) – James van Riemsdyk (25)
Nate Thompson (44) – Patrick Brown (38) – Zack MacEwen (17)
Oskar Lindblom (23) – Derick Brassard (19) – Cam Atkinson (89)
Ivan Provorov (9) – Justin Braun (61)
Travis Sanheim (6) – Rasmus Ristolainen (70)
Nick Seeler (24) – Keith Yandle (3)
Carter Hart played last night but is on such a hot streak that he could very well be in net again tonight.
Puck drop is at 7 pm CST.