Dallas hosts the New York Rangers in the midst of a tabloid tailspin for the Blueshirts.
There have been plenty of well-documented struggles for the New York Rangers recently, and the Dallas Stars look to capitalize on their tailspin after a tough loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Dallas lost 5-3 Wednesday night against a Toronto team that the Stars have not beaten at home since 2017. Goaltender Jake Oettinger had a shockingly poor night, giving up four goals in the first eight shots of the game for the Leafs.
Now, the Stars prepare final home game before the Christmas break and look to use the Rangers myriad misfortune to their advantage to get back in the win column before heading out to Utah.
New York got off to a strong start to the season after making the Eastern Conference Final last year, when they edged the Stars for the President's Trophy as the best regular season team by only one point. Then, things started to come apart at the seams.
General Manager Chris Drury announced the team was open for business regarding trades, making it known that the Rangers wanted to shake up their roster moving forward despite being in a playoff spot. Captain Jacob Trouba was flown off to join the Ducks, and just this week, former second overall pick Kaapo Kakko was shipped to the Seattle Kraken for Will Borgen and two picks.
As all of that was going on, the Rangers have been on a slide of 11 losses in their last 14 games and have slipped all the way down to a three-way tie for last place in the Metropolitan Division. Last game, New York was shut out by the last-place Nashville Predators 2-0 on Tuesday night.
All things considered, the Stars do not want to be the team that breaks the Rangers out of their slumber. New York relies heavily on their star players making high-danger cross-ice passes that Dallas has struggled to shut down in the past few years.
Three Things to Watch For:
- The health of the Stars has been in flux in recent games as a flu bug has been traveling around the room. Keep an eye on several game-time decisions tonight for Dallas. The Stars called up Justin Hryckowian today in anticipation of a potential forward missing action. Mason Marchment's x-rays came back negative but he is sore and won't know if he can give it a go until the last minute.
- Dallas has one home game left before the Christmas break, which is on the road against the Utah Hockey Club. Casey DeSmith had an outstanding performance in Utah earlier this month, so it seems to make sense. DeSmith played the third period of Wednesday's game and allowed no goals after Oettinger got pulled. It was Oettinger's seventh start in a row, but in the postgame, head coach Pete DeBoer said he was pulled to give him some rest.
- Dallas is looking over their shoulder at the Colorado Avalanche fast approaching in the Central Division race. It is imperative for Dallas to keep winning because the team could find themselves in a Wild Card spot in no time.
Projected Lineup:
Robertson-Hintz-Borque
Marchment-Duchene-Stankoven
Benn-Johnston-Dadonov
Steel-Back-Blackwell
Heiskanen-Bichsel
Lindell-Lyubushkin
Smith-Petrovic
Oettinger
DeSmith
Puck drop is at 7 p.m. CDT and can be seen on Victory+ and ESPN+
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