The Avalanche (4-4-0) take a three-game losing streak into Tuesday's game at the Pepsi Center against Dallas (5-3-0), which has won four in a row.
Here are the GAME NOTES.
The Avalanche will change lines again, in part because of the injuries to J.T. Compher (broken thumb) and Tyson Jost (lower body).
Sven Andrighetto moves back with Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen. Gabriel Landeskog will switch to the second line with Matt Duchene and Nail Yakupov.
"We want to keep our top guys playing together," coach Jared Bednar said after the morning skate. "When you look at our lineup earlier in the year, you could flip a coin between our second and third lines; both were playing equal minutes and both were producing.
"We want to make sure we can keep rolling our lines and use those top two lines a little bit more than the others in key situations, offensively especially. We also have the option of flipping Landy and Andrighetto."
A win moves the Avalanche above .500, but another loss matches how they began a year ago, when they fell to 4-5-0 and didn't climb over .500 for the rest of the season.
"We have to get back to everyone pulling their weight, playing like they can," Duchene said. "Hopefully the four-day break will help us get that bad taste out of our mouth about the last three games. We want to be better at home. So far, two out of three is pretty good and we want to keep that percentage going our way."
The Stars are starting a five-game road trip. They've won four in a row, defeated the Avalanche 3-1 on Oct. 14 in Dallas and have won the past five games between the teams.
The expected lineup:
FORWARDS Sven Andrighetto -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Mikko Rantanen Gabriel Landeskog -- Matt Duchene -- Nail Yakupov Matt Nieto -- Alexander Kerfoot -- A.J. Greer Gabriel Bourque -- Carl Soderberg -- Blake Comeau
DEFENSE Nikita Zadorov -- Erik Johnson Anton Lindholm -- Tyson Barrie Mark Barberio -- Chris Bigras
GOALIES Semyon Varlamov Jonathan Bernier