Exiting a five-night break, Lindy Ruff's Dallas Stars (29-11-4) begin a three-game California road trip as they take on Bruce Boudreau's Anaheim Ducks (18-17-7) on Friday night. Game time at the Honda Center is 9:00 p.m. CT. The game will be televised on Fox Sports Southwest Plus.
This is the second of three meetings between the Western Conference teams this year. On Oct. 27 at the American Airlines Center, the Stars recovered from a 3-0 deficit and came back to win the game, 4-3.
The Stars last played on Jan. 9, dropping a 2-1 home decision to the Minnesota Wild. The month of January has not been kind thus far to the Stars. After racking up a comfortable lead atop the Central Division and Western Conference through the end of the 2015 calendar year portion of the season, Dallas has stumbled to a 1-3-1 record thus far in January. The Stars are 4-4-2 over their last 10 games heading into the five-night break.
In the meantime, the defending Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks have made their move. Chicago has rattled off nine straight wins since the Stars blanked them, 4-0, on Dec. 23. Since then, the Hawks have gained 18 of a possible 18 points while the Stars have picked up eight points. As a result, Dallas and Chicago are now tied with 62 points. However, the Stars hold two games in hand over the Blackhawks, who have played 44 games.
After this game, the Stars are right back in action on Saturday, visiting the San Jose Sharks.
The Ducks struggled mightily (no pun intended) until the Christmas break but have come on since then, posting points in eight of the last 10 games (6-2-2) despite still ranking at the bottom of the NHL's goal-scoring chart for the season. On Wednesday, the Ducks earned a 4-1 home win over the Ottawa Senators to improve their home record to 12-7-4 on the season. Friday's game is the sixth game of a season-high eight game homestand.
On the Anaheim injury front, defensemen Cam Fowler (knee) and Simon Despres (concussion) are on injured reserve. For Dallas, the five-day break enabled the team to get healthy. Ales Hemsky and Jordie Benn have both been cleared to play.