Two of the league's Stanley Cup contenders battle as the Dallas Stars meet the Carolina Hurricanes in Raleigh Monday night.
The week of Thanksgiving has finally arrived, and the Dallas Stars prepare for the last two games before the unofficial benchmark date where 75 percent of teams in a playoff position stay in one by the end of the season.
Over the past ten seasons, that statistic has proved to be true, and this is the third straight year where Dallas has comfortably been inside that cut line, setting themselves up for a race to the finish with a strong start to the season. After a 4-2 win over Tampa Bay, the Stars are now 13-6-0, good for third in the Central Division only behind two of the best teams in the league in Winnipeg and Minnesota.
Now, Dallas is faced with playing Carolina, who are one of the strongest teams in the Eastern Conference at 14-5-1 and only one point behind the Metropolitan leading New Jersey Devils. Carolina has been led by Martin Necas, a player who has always had the ability to be a star but is finally breaking out to reach his potential. Necas is third in the NHL in points, only two behind league leader Nathan MacKinnon and one behind Kirill Kaprizov, who scored the only goal for Minnesota in the Stars recent game against the Wild.
Necas has played recently with Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Eric Robinson, the latter of whom was essentially discarded by Columbus and Buffalo, unable to really make any sort of impact for either non-playoff team last season. Robinson only had 10 points between the two teams last year and now has 13 points through his first 20 games for Carolina.
The Hurricanes have an uncanny knack for finding players like this and allowing them to thrive in their hard-working, high shot total system. Another perfect example is Jack Roslovic, who was on-and-off scratched by the New York Rangers after acquiring him at the trade deadline last season. When he was in the lineup, it was only for a fourth line role. Now, Roslovic leads the team with 12 goals, which is good for a top 10 position in the entire NHL.
Carolina, similarly to Tampa, is coming off of a high scoring loss past regulation to the pesky Columbus Blue Jackets. The Canes had a third period lead before allowing Columbus to tie it with the extra attacker near the end of the period. In overtime, starting netminder Pyotr Kochetkov was involved in a collision with his own teammate that caused him to exit the game with an upper body injury. Backup Spencer Martin had to come in cold to finish the last couple minutes of overtime and the shootout. Carolina's three shooters were stopped and Martin allowed one goal, giving the Blue Jackets the win.
Dallas earned a hard-fought victory in Raleigh last season in a low-scoring, low shot total game that ended up in a 2-1 Stars win. The Stars will look to stifle the depth of the Hurricanes once more.
What to watch for:
- With Carolina goaltender Frederik Andersen out since the beginning of the season and now adding a possible head injury for Kochetkov, it could be the third and fourth goaltenders on the depth chart as the goalie tandem for the Canes tonight. Martin has started three games, with a 1-2-1 record, a save percentage of .870 and a goals against average of 3.21
- Dallas has gone 4-2-2 in Raleigh over the past eight games, and have gotten at least a point in five straight against the Hurricanes.
- Jason Robertson is more than a point-per-game player in his career against Carolina, posting 18 points in only 12 games. Along with Wyatt Johnston and Roope Hintz, he looks to continue the long-awaited rise of the top line back to an elite level.
Projected lines:
Robertson-Hintz-Johnston
Marchment-Duchene-Seguin
Benn-Bourque-Stankoven
Steel-Back-Dadonov
Lindell-Heiskanen
Harley-Lybushkin
Smith-Dumba
Oettinger
DeSmith
Puck drop is at 6 p.m. CDT and can be seen on Victory+ locally and ESPN+ in out of market areas.
Make sure you bookmark THN's Dallas Stars site for the latest news, exclusive interviews, breakdowns, and so much more.
- Follow Taylor on Twitter: @THN_taylor