PREVIEW 10:15 AM CST
In their final game before Christmas, the Dallas Stars (19-13-1) take on the Nashville Predators (18-12-4) at the American Airlines Center. The game starts at 7:30 PM CST and will be broadcast locally on Fox Sports Southwest.
Tonight's game is the first of four meetings between the teams this season. Last year, the teams split the games two hard-fought wins apiece, with each club winning once at home and once in the other one's building. One of the Stars' nine third-period comeback victories last season came at the Predators' expense.
The Stars enter tonight's game coming off a disappointing performance in a 4-1 loss to Philadelphia on Wednesday. Overall the team has won 6 of its last 10 games.
Nashville comes into the game off a huge comeback win over the woeful Columbus Blue Jackets. In that tilt, the Preds erased a three-goal deficit and came back to win, 6-5. The Predators are 7-3-0 in their last 10 games. Superstar defenseman Shea Weber has racked up seven points in the last four games.
Stars coach Glen Gulutzan has not named a starting goalie for tonight's game. Richard Bachman (2.53 GAA, .915 save percentage) has started each of the last six games, while Andrew Raycroft (3.53 GAA, .897 save percentage) has not appeared in a game since being pulled after the second period in San Jose.
Michael Ryder, who has goals in three straight games, provided Dallas' lone offensive highlight in Thursday's game. He scored on a blistering shot in the opening minute of the game. Dallas needs to start getting more consistent multi-goal production from both Ryder's line with Jamie Benn and Loui Eriksson and Mike Ribeiro's second-line unit with Brenden Morrow and Steve Ott.
The Stars' defensive game suffered on Thursday without the services of top defenseman Stephane Robidas (foot injury). They'll need to pull together tonight, as Robidas will also miss the game against the Predators. With Philip Larsen (charley horse) still day-to-day, the club may need to turn to Adam Pardy to fill in again as Sheldon Souray's partner.
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