The league's hottest team and the league's best team will square off tonight as the Calgary Flames - winners of six in a row - are in Dallas to take on the 1st place Stars.
As a whole the Flames have struggled on the road this season but they picked up an impressive win in Nashville on Tuesday night and will be looking for more of the same against another team with an excellent home record in the Stars.
The Stars are 12-3-0 on home soil and have a plus-20 goal differential in that span so it certainly won't be an easy task for the Flames to extend their winning streak to seven games.
In the event the Flames manage to squeeze out a win there stands a good chance they'll be in playoff position by the end of the night.
For a team that won just eight of their first 24 games, and looked to be out of the race before it even started, that'd be an impressive feat; even playing in a very poor division.
LINEUPS Gaudreau - Monahan - Jones Bennett - Granlund - Hudler Raymond - Backlund - Jooris Ferland - Stajan - Colborne
Giordano - Brodie Russell - Hamilton Engelland - Wideman
Ramo
--
Benn - Seguin - Nichushkin Janmark - Spezza - Eaves Roussel - Eakin - Sharp Sceviour - Fiddler - Hemsky
Goligoski - Klingberg Oduya - Demers Nemeth - Benn
GAME NOTES 1) The Benn - Seguin - Nichushkin line has been nothing short of spectacular since being put together. In a little more than 63 minutes at full-strength the Stars have generated 56% of the shot attempts, 60% of the scoring chances and 57% of the goals. The Flames will have their hands full trying to slow that unit down; especially without Michael Frolik, one of the team's better two-way forwards, and last change working in Dallas' favor.
2) Only the LA Kings (32.7) generate more shots per game than Dallas (32.2) and no team generated more scoring chances per 60 minutes of 5 v 5 play than the Stars. The Flames need Karri Ramo to play like he did in Nashville because he's going to face a lot of rubber.
3) On average there are 60.3 scoring chances per 60 minutes of 5 v 5 in games involving the Stars. That's the highest in the NHL. There are 54.2 scoring chances per 60 minutes of 5 v 5 in Flames games, which ranks them 5th in the NHL. Expect a high-octane, high-event contest.
The game is at 8:30 eastern and can be seen on Sportsnet-Flames and FS-SW.
Recent posts: On Frolik's ice time, Granlund's emergence & more