I believe it was Dorothy who said it best, “There’s no place like home.” And while she was trying to leave the Emerald City with her words, the boys in Victory Green are returning to the AAC with these words in their minds. It’ll be a different atmosphere for sure for Dallas. This is the first time in over a year and a half the AAC will be at full capacity for a hockey game.
We will see if this is something that helps the Stars or not. Dallas is returning home after starting the season on the road for the first four games. Four games in which Dallas won two of them. Albeit needing overtime to do it. None the less, a win is a win regardless of how long it takes to get there (and if you’re going to give out freebie points to the opposition, at least it was done against the Eastern Conference, which doesn’t hurt down the stretch as much.)
I guess the overtime games shouldn’t come as a surprise to us, right? Dallas played in 20 overtime games last year — and that was with a shortened 56 game schedule. Right now they’re on pace to play in 41 of them this year. Ok, so we know that’s not going to happen.
Or is it?
Dallas Stars Lineups
Jacob Peterson (40) – Roope Hintz (24) – Alexander Radulov (47)
Joel Kiviranta (25) – Tyler Seguin (91) – Luke Glendening (11)
Tanner Kero (64) – Jamie Benn (14) – Denis Gurianov (34)
Michael Raffl (18) – Radek Faksa (12) – Joe Pavelski (16)
Esa Lindell (23) – Miro Heiskanen (4)
Ryan Suter (20) – Andrej Sekera (5)
Joel Hanley (44) – Jani Hakanpaa (2)
Braden Holtby (70)
Anton Khudobin (35)
Some injury news for Dallas:
John Klingberg, Jason Robertson and Blake Comeau are all “very doubtful” for tomorrow night, per Rick Bowness.
Klingberg was in the ice for some of practice today. Robertson and Comeau will join the team tomorrow morning for morning skate, their first skate with the group.
— Saad Yousuf (@SaadYousuf126) October 21, 2021
The LA Kings
Once a division rival of the Stars, the Kings are not that anymore. That doesn’t mean Stars fans dislike them any less, though. After an impressive opening night win against the Vegas Golden Knights (6-2), the Kings have lost their last two games. They lost at home to the Minnesota Wild 3-2 and then on the road at Nashville 2-1 on Tuesday. After tonight’s game, LA has the weird situation of playing the St. Louis Blues twice in a row in St. Louis.
This is a game in which Dallas should win (on paper). They’ll be playing in front of an energetic home crowd. They’ll have the last change of the night. It seems set up for Dallas to win the game. The Kings, though, obviously have a different agenda. They’re wanting to break this two game slide. The Stars will want to make it three games tonight. Then, the Kings can go win the next two against the Blues to end their losing streak.
Kings Potential Lines
Viktor Arvidsson (33) – Anze Kopitar (11) – Dustin Brown (23)
Alex Lafallo (19) – Phillip Denault (24) – Adrian Kempe (9)
Vladimir Tkachev (21) – Gabriel Vilardi (13) – Trevor Moore (12)
Carl Grunstrom (91) – Blake Lizotte (46) – Rasmus Kupari (89)
Michael Anderson (44) – Drew Doughty (8)
Alexander Edler (2) – Sean Walker (26)
Tobias Bjornfot (7) – Matt Roy (3)
Cal Petersen (40)
Jonathan Quick (32)