DALLAS — This should be a fun one.
The Dallas Stars are trying to extend a season-long five-game win streak, tied for the longest current streak in the NHL, and have seemingly found the proper mix of depth scoring and execution to compete for a top-three playoff spot in the Central Division.
“We’re a lot better in a lot of areas,” defenseman Dan Hamhuis said. “I think we’re playing better in our systems, individually more guys are playing at a higher level, and we’re getting key saves and key goals.”
Even in the second half of back-to-back, and missing their top-line center, the Nashville Predators are a dangerous team. The Predators have a 12-2-1 record in their past 15 games, beat the Boston Bruins 5-3 on Monday with Kyle Turris — who arrived in a trade last month — stepping onto the top line for an injured Ryan Johansen and dished out two assists.
“They’re a team you try to measure yourself against,” Greg Pateryn said. “They reached the finals last year, and were close to winning it all. This is a big game where we need to play like a team that can do something similar.”
With a back-to-back the Predators will likely be turning to back-up goalie Juuse Saros, but Predators coach Peter Laviolette doesn’t discuss goaltending and wouldn’t confirm. Saros is 1-3-1 with a .870 save percentage and 3.70 goals against average in five starts filling in for Pekka Rinne.
We do know that Ben Bishop will be back in net for Dallas after Kari Lehtonen beat the Colorado Avalanche 7-2 on Sunday. Bishop has won his past four starts and allowed only nine goals during that span, including his second shutout of the season.
Jamie Oleksiak will come back into the lineup for Julius Honka.
“We just feel like this is gonna be a competitive game,” Stars coach Ken Hitchcock said. “They’ve got a lot of firepower up front and we’re going to have to find a way to negate it.”
Curtis McKenzie will be a healthy scratch with Antoine Roussel returning after missing back-to-back games with the flu. Roussel skated for 65 minutes by himself on Monday and Hitchcock said he’s good to go.
Predators projected lineup
Kevin Fiala — Kyle Turris — Craig Smith
Filip Forsberg — Calle Jarnkrok — Pontus Aberg
Colton Sissons — Nick Bonino — Viktor Arvidsson
Miikka Salomaki — Frederick Gaudreau — Austin Watson
Roman Josi — Mattias Ekholm
Alexei Emelin — P.K. Subban
Matt Irwin — Yannick Weber
Juuse Saros
Pekka Rinne
Scratched: Cody McLeod, Anthony Bitetto
Injured: Ryan Ellis (knee), Scott Hartnell (lower body), Ryan Johansen (upper body)
Stars projected lineup
Jamie Benn — Tyler Seguin — Alexander Radulov
Mattias Janmark — Jason Spezza — Devin Shore
Antoine Roussel — Radek Faksa — Tyler Pitlick
Remi Elie — Gemel Smith — Brett Ritchie
Esa Lindell — John Klingberg
Dan Hamhuis — Greg Pateryn
Jamie Oleksiak — Stephen Johns
Ben Bishop
Kari Lehtonen
Scratched: Julius Honka, Curtis McKenzie
Injured: Marc Methot (knee), Martin Hanzal (hamstring)
Brendan Baxter says
What does Hitch see in Oleksiak that the rest of us don’t? He is a turnover machine and has not played consistently enough to warrant removing Honka.
Sean Shapiro says
Hitch has had high view of Oleksiak going back to training camp. At one point Hitch was trumpeting him as a top-four defender that was solidifying the Stars defense for long-term.
I believe there is an expectation that Hitch wants him to live up to, and he wants to give that chance. (Not a theory I agree with, but could be reasoning).
Brendan Baxter says
Thanks for responding! Pretty cool stuff to see the comment coming from you. I understand the desire to have the prized draft picks play to their drafted potential. I want Oleksiak to be what they envisioned him to be when they drafted him, but draft pedigree doesn’t guarantee success, and by now I have to assume Oleksiak is a known quantity. More Hal Gill and less Zeno Chara. What worries me more, is the potential damage this does to Honka long term future.
Granted a tad earlier to be thinking like that since he has at least one year left on his ELC but he needs to feel like he has been given the opportunity to show what he can do and he is just having his confidence and development stunted by that.
Sean Shapiro says
I’ll do my best to reply as often as possible in here, I enjoy the conversation. Overall this organization hasn’t done a job of making decisions on young defensemen, they’ve had some good ones with potential, but have needed to make a choice and live with it. Instead indecision has hurt collective.