Looking to put a halt to a six-game winless streak and win for just the second time on home ice this season, Lindy Ruff's Dallas Stars (4-5-4) will play host to Todd McLellan's San Jose Sharks (7-5-2) at the American Airlines Center on Saturday night. Game time is 7:00 p.m. CST. The game will be televised on Fox Sports Southwest.
This is the first of three meetings between the teams this season. Last season, Dallas went 1-0-2 against San Jose to take four of a possible six points in the standings.
Dallas enters this game coming off a 3-2 home loss to Nashville on Thursday. The club played much better than in its previous two games but still suffered a regulation loss. Nevertheless, as was the case in the latter stages of two prolonged winless skids last season, Dallas showed signs of recovering its all-around game.
The big issue in the Nashville game was that goaltender Kari Lehtonen got heavily screened on a couple of Predators' goals, and the Preds struck twice on the power play to build a 2-0 lead. Dallas rallied back to the tie the game at 2-2 on an end-to-end goal by defenseman Trevor Daley and a loose puck scramble goal by Patrick Eaves seconds after a clean faceoff win by Tyler Seguin. The Preds went ahead to stay with less than seven minutes remaining in the third period.
Seguin, who won 69 percent of his faceoffs in the Nashville game, will look to break loose tonight from an offensive mini-drought. His lone point in the last four games was his assist on Eaves' goal. However, he generated eight shots on goal against the Predators and has fired 15 pucks on net in the last four games. Sooner or later, the points will start coming with regularity again.
Likewise, Stars' captain Jamie Benn came away empty on seven shots on net in the Nashville game but seems to be on the brink of a breakthrough. Pointless in his last four games and goalless in the last six after scoring goals in five straight games, Benn has 23 shots on goal over the last five games.
On the injury front, Cody Eakin (upper body) sat out Thursday's game and was unable to practice yesterday. He is doubtful for tonight. Second year forward Valeri Nichushkin, who has been bothered off and on all season by a hip/groin issue, left practice early yesterday according to Stars' Inside Edge. Nichushkin is questionable for tonight.
The Sharks had a similarly frustrating night against Vancouver on Thursday as the Stars had against Nashville. Despite compiling a 36-19 shot advantage for the game, San Jose sustained a 3-2 regulation loss to Ryan Miller and the Canucks. What made the outcome especially tough to swallow is that a would-be tying goal by Joe Thornton failed to beat the buzzer. The clock hit 0.0 just before the puck crossed the goal line.
Considering the fact that San Jose has played nine away games (five home matches) to date and are embarking on a seven-game road trip, the club's record to date is a solid one. If the club can do well on the road swing, they will be in good shape when the schedule balances out with a slew of home games.
On the Sharks injury front, Mike Brown (hand) and F Raffi Torres (knee) are out.