Losing to put a halt to the team's first bonafide slump of the season, Lindy Ruff's Dallas Stars (28-10-4) play host to Paul Maurice's Winnipeg Jets (19-19-2) on Thursday night. Game time at the American Airlines Center is 7:30 p.m. CT. The game will be televised on Fox Sports Southwest.
This is the second of five meetings between the teams this season. The Stars downed the visiting Jets by a 6-3 score on Nov. 12. The teams will see each other a lot in February. They'll face off on Feb. 2 in Winnipeg and then conclude the season series with a home-and-home set in Winnipeg on Feb. 23 and in Dallas on Feb. 25.
The Stars, who are looking for their first win in January and are 1-3-1 since a successful home-and-home set against St. Louis after the Christmas break, endured a terrible three-game road trip through the New York metropolitan area. In the last two games -- 6-5 and 6-2 regulation losses to the New York Islanders and Rangers respectively -- the Stars have yielded a combined 12 goals. As a result, Dallas has dropped to 17th in the NHL in team goals against average after steadily creeping up into the top half in that category in combination with being the NHL's highest-scoring club.
Ruff has minced no words in saying that his team cannot afford to revert to the issues that proved so costly last season: No team, now matter how offensively stacked it is, can outscore a lack of 200-foot play. In an effort to get his team back on the right track, Ruff (who serially juggles line combinations, both between and within games) has temporarily split apart the dynamic duo of Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin; at least to start Thursday's game. As a message to the entire team, Ruff benched Benn and Seguin for the final 12 minutes of the blowout loss to the Rangers on Tuesday.
At Wednesday's Stars practice, Benn played left wing on a line with Jason Spezza and Valeri Nichushkin. Seguin centered Mattias Janmark and Patrick Sharp.
No matter whether Antti Niemi (strafed by the Rangers) or Kari Lehtonen (peppered for 44 shots and six goals by the Islanders) is in goal for the Stars against the Jets, the Stars will need to play significantly better in front of their netminder than they have the last two games. Both goalies are also capable of playing better when things get chaotic around them or in not overcommitting themselves. Dallas has also yielded shorthanded goals in each of the last two games simply by being outworked and being soft on the puck. Standout young defenseman John Klingberg was among the lead culprits on both.
The Jets are wrapping up a five-game road trip. They are 2-2-0 thus far including a 4-1 win in Nashville on Tuesday. Winnipeg used a pair of power play goals by Drew Stafford and an early third period even strength goal by Ben Chiarot to build a 3-0 lead. Alexander Burmistrov tacked on a late empty net goal. Goaltender Connor Hellebuyck, a 22-year-old second-year pro and first season NHLer, continued his stellar rookie campaign with an outstanding performance on a night where the Jets were ultimately outshot by a 44-18 margin. Hellebuyck came one third period line rush goal by Colin Wilson away from recording his second shutout of the season.
With veteran Ondrej Pavelec (knee) on injured reserve, Hellebucyk has gotten red hot and is expected to get the call again as the team arrives in Dallas. Veteran defenseman Grant Clitsome (back) remains on IR for the Jets. Alex Hemsky (foot) is on IR for the Stars.