The Dallas Stars return home to face the New York Islanders on NASA night at the American Airlines Center on Tuesday. The game will begin a home-heavy month of March that sees the Stars play 10 of their final 14 games on home ice to finish out the regular season.
Road Success For Dallas
The road was a huge issue for the Stars early on in the season. However, since early this year, they have turned things around drastically. Dating back to the middle of January, Dallas has gone 19-5-1 away from home, the best road record in the NHL.
Now, they shift their focus to their home performance as that will be what decides their fate in the final month of the season. Although they only played four home games in March, the team was unhappy with their record (2-2-0) as they missed out on big chances to better their position in the standings. Starting tonight, they will play 10 games at home over 24 days. Overall, their schedule will be jam-packed as they pursue a playoff spot in the Western Conference.
Despite the recent success, Dallas will be looking to bounce back tonight after a lackluster performance and 4-1 loss to the Seattle Kraken on Sunday. The Stars played one of their sloppiest games of the season and looked tired at the tail end of the four-game road trip.
“This one stings a little bit because you come in 3-0, you fully expect to go out 4-0,” Stars forward Joe Pavelski said. “Six out of eight points, throughout a season, you’re thinking that’s a pretty good trip. But, in this situation, you like to be a little greedy and a little selfish and you wanted that fourth one. Would’ve liked to have that last one.”
The biggest adjustments the team will look to make come in defending their own net against the rush and on the power play. They allowed Seattle to come at them over and over again and their power play actually took more momentum away and handed it to the Kraken.
“We haven’t given up that many breakaways all year, let alone one game,” Rick Bowness said. “We didn’t have the jump in our legs, we were a step behind for two periods, and they just fed on our miscues when we had to open it up.”
Still, in the grand scheme of things, Dallas picked up six of a possible eight points on a tough road trip and has allowed themselves to remain right on the bubble, just one point out of the final playoff spot with three games in hand on the Vegas Golden Knights ahead of them,
Related: Stars Seem Destined to Remain on the Playoff Bubble
“Obviously, this one we wanted two points here today, at least a point, but we know we’re not going to win them all,” defenseman John Klingberg said. “It’s been a long road trip, so three out of four is obviously huge, but we wanted four out of four. But we feel pretty good about this.”
Which Stars Players Will Dress
With the addition of Marian Studenic and Vladislav Namestnikov and a healthy overall lineup, the Stars coaches have been forced to make some tough decisions when choosing their lineup each night. So far, they have scratched Alexander Radulov, Denis Gurianov, Joel Kiviranta, Jacob Peterson, and Marian Studenic. Each player has come back strong in the next game (Radulov was scratched in the last game), and the coaching staff continues to stay in constant communication with them about the situation.
On Tuesday, we could see any of the above names sitting up in the press box or it could be another player that we do not expect. At this point, it is about resting bodies when needed and playing the names that give them the best chance to win.
“We scored last game with Petey in the bumper spot, so we went back with him [Saturday]. Denis will see some more power play. I was very happy with Denis’ game. I always like how he responds.” — Bowness said on the decision to play Peterson on the power play instead of Gurianov.
Islanders Scouting Report
While the Islanders have been out of the playoff race for some time, they have actually been playing pretty good hockey as of late. They are currently riding a four-game winning streak and have gone 7-3-0 in their last 10 overall.
New York outlasted Dallas 4-2 in their last meeting March 19 on Long Island despite being outplayed for much of the game.
“You don’t get points for being the better team,” Michael Raffl said after that game. “The results are all that matters and we are aware of the position we are in in the standings and we know we’ve got to find a way to win games. That’s how she goes sometimes.”
Brock Nelson led all skaters in that contest with three goals, including the game-winner and the empty-net goal to seal the victory. He leads the Islanders with 32 goals and 49 points while Mat Barzal has recorded 34 assists and 48 points on the season.
Lineup Updates
- Dallas did not hold a morning skate today. Any updates will come just before game time.
He Said It
“It’s just the situation that’s in front of us,” forward Joe Pavelski said. “We’re playing hockey games, whether you’re at home or on the road, we need wins. You’ve got to keep winning and guys have done a good job buying into that, playing hard and finding a lot of good, quality wins.”
Projected Lines
- Robertson-Hintz-Pavelski
- Namestnikov-Seguin-Gurianov
- Peterson-Benn-Radulov
- Raffl-Faksa-Glendening
- Suter-Heiskanen
- Hanley-Klingberg
- Sekera-Hakanpaa
- Oettinger
- Wedgewood
