DALLAS — The Dallas Stars have not faired well against the top teams in the Central Division.
Against the Nashville Predators, Winnipeg Jets, and St. Louis Blues the Stars are a combined 0-6-0 and yet they are still in a wild card position heading into Saturday’s game with Nashville.
Dallas picked up a key win earlier this week against the Chicago Blackhawks, 4-0 on Thursday, and the hope in the locker room on Saturday was that would build momentum for the final game before NHL’s three-day Christmas break.
“Yeah, last game was a division game and so is this one,” Devin Shore said. “I think you try and approach every game in the same way, but obviously these four point games in the division are really important. We’re going to take that in there. Chicago is a great team, too, so you just have to keep that intensity level high and respect your opponent but also believe in your team’s ability to get the job done.”
“I think in a way it does,” Tyler Pitlick said. “They also have good defensemen in Chicago and they have similar qualities to Nashville like moving it quick up the boards. I think what we did a lot was get it behind them and make them uncomfortable and make them try to make plays up the middle and we were clogging it up. We got a lot more o-zone time so I think we have to do the same thing tonight.”
Lineup stays the same
The Stars will field the same lineup they used against Chicago. Nashville will have a couple tweaks after a 4-1 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes.
Ben Bishop is in goal for Dallas, Juuse Saros is expected, but not confirmed, to start for Nashville.
World Junior Rosters set
In non-NHL news, the Stars will officially have six prospects at the 2018 World Junior Championship in Buffalo.
They are: Miro Heiskanen (Finland), Ondrej Vala (Czech Reupblic), Fredrik Karlstrom (Sweden), Colton Point (Canada), Jake Oettinger (USA), and Riley Tufte (USA).
There will be a full World Junior preview and viewer guid published tomorrow morning here at the Upset.
Predators projected lineup
Filip Forsberg — Ryan Johansen — Viktor Arvidsson
Kevin Fiala — Kyle Turris — Craig Smith
Calle Jarnkrok — Nick Bonino — Austin Watson
Cody McLeod — Colton Sissons — Scott Hartnell
Roman Josi — Mattias Ekholm
Alexei Emelin — P.K. Subban
Anthony Bitetto — Yannick Weber
Juuse Saros
Pekka Rinne
Scratched: Pontus Aberg, Miikka Salomaki, Matt Irwin
Injured: Ryan Ellis (knee)
Stars projected lineup
Remi Elie — Jamie Benn — Alexander Radulov
Mattias Janmark — Tyler Seguin — Devin Shore
Gemel Smith — Martin Hanzal — Jason Spezza
Antoine Roussel — Radek Faksa — Tyler Pitlick
Esa Lindell — John Klingberg
Dan Hamhuis — Greg Pateryn
Stephen Johns — Julius Honka
Ben Bishop
Kari Lehtonen
Scratched: Brett Ritchie
Injured: Marc Methot (knee)
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