After getting out-played by the first place Winnipeg Jets Saturday afternoon, the Dallas stars finish up their quick two-game road trip against Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins.
A very frustrated Dallas team is looking to reset after the 4-1 loss to the Jets where Winnipeg was the faster and better team the entire game. That win for the Jets created NHL history, as they are now the only team to have ever won 14 of their first 15 games to start the season. The Stars were just 90 seconds away from allowing Jets goaltender Connor Hellebyuck to get a third straight shut out, but Roope Hintz was able to get the Stars on the score sheet.
Jamie Benn and Adam Lowry went toe-to-toe in a captain vs captain fight in the third period, which was the only battle the Stars seemed to win all afternoon against the strong Winnipeg squad.
Recently, the Stars have seemed to lose their footing, having trouble winning games consistently as well as struggling to get some of their best players going offensively. After winning their first four games, they have gone 4-5-0 and sit third in the Central Division behind the Jets and the Minnesota Wild. Although it is early in the season, the Central Division is always a tight race and the Stars don't want to mess around too much and get in a hole they cannot dig out of.
The Penguins, who are off to a very slow start, defeated the Washington Capitals 4-2 in their last game, which was Crosby and Alex Ovechkin's 70th head-to-head match-up in their storied careers. Evgeni Malkin and Erik Karlsson both had multi-point games.
The big three of Crosby, Malkin and Kris Letang have been synonymous with Penguins hockey for so many years, setting the record for most time spent together with one team in any sport. Crosby re-signed a team-friendly deal this off-season, but Pittsburgh has struggled even more than last season, where they missed the playoffs by the smallest of margins.
What to watch for:
- The Stars are a mere 2-5-0 away from the American Airlines Center, but the Penguins are only 3-3-0 at home so far this season. Dallas has won four of the last five meetings with the Penguins, and should be looking at this game as a very winnable game. Last season, the Stars were the best road team in the NHL, so this season's road woes are a bit puzzling. Meanwhile, Dallas has proved to be difficult to beat at home so far, going 6-0.
- Jason Robertson seems to play well against the Penguins in his career. He has tallied nine points in five games against Pittsburgh, including one goal and eight assists. He has been one of the many Stars players having a slow start, only recording seven points in the first 13 games. s
- Jake Oettinger starts tonight after getting pulled in the Winnipeg goals after allowing four goals. It wasn't necessarily on Oettinger, though, as the whole team had played pretty bad before he got the hook. Oettinger bounced back from a bad outing in Finland and only allowed one goal in his next start against the Blackhawks.
Projected lines:
Robertson-Hintz-Stankoven
Bourque-Duchene-Seguin
Benn-Johnston-Dadonov
Steel-Back-Blackwell
Dumba-Heiskanen
Harley-Lybushkin
Lindell-Lundkvist
Oettinger
DeSmith
Puck drop is at 6 p.m. CDT and can be seen on Victory+ locally and ESPN+ in out of market areas.
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