PREVIEW: STARS @ MAPLE LEAFS
Looking to get back on the winning track after taking just one of four possible points over the post-Thanksgiving weekend, the Dallas Stars (9-10-5) are north of the border tonight to take on the Toronto Maple Leafs (12-8-3). Game time at the Air Canada Centre is 6:30 p.m. CST. The game will be televised on Fox Sports Southwest Plus.
This is the first of two meetings this season between the inter-conference clubs. The Stars and Maple Leafs will rematch at the American Airlines Center in Dallas on Dec. 23. Last season, the Stars went 1-0-1 in their two games with Dallas.
Stars outlook
The Stars reeled off a three-game winning streak before U.S. Thanksgiving but stumbled to a 5-4 home overtime loss on Friday and a listless 5-2 beating in Denver at the hands of the Colorado Avalanche. Dallas got outshot by a 47-24 margin in the latter game. Backup goaltender Anders Lindbà¤ck (42 saves) got a rare start in the Colorado game. Usual starter Kari Lehtonen will be back in goal tonight.
With the team playing so inconsistently all season on both sides of the puck, Stars head coach Lindy Ruff has done a lot of line juggling throughout the campaign to date. The personnel adjustments continued at practice yesterday.
Struggling Ales Hemsky (one goal, six points, minus-10 in 23 games) will be tried on the right wing of the top line with Tyler Seguin (18 goals, 31 points) and team captain Jamie Benn (eight goals, 23 points). The second line now consists of Jason Spezza (tied with Benn for the team assist lead with 15, third in points with 19) centering the streaky Erik Cole (currently in a cold stretch with one goal, two points in his last nine games) and Patrick Eaves.
Defenseman Alex Goligoski (lower-body injury) took a maintenance day from practice yesterday per Stars Inside Edge. He was hobbled blocking a shot in Saturday's game. Officially, Goligoski is questionable for tonight's game and will be a game-day decision based on how he feels at the morning skate.
The Stars will have third-line winger Ryan Garbutt back in the lineup tonight. He has finished serving a two-game suspension for a knee-to-knee hit on Edmonton's Taylor Hall. A few weeks ago, Garbutt scored game-winning goals in back-to-back matches against Arizona (late third period shorthanded goal) and Los Angeles. For the season, Garbutt has eight points.
Garbutt's frequent partner in crime, agitating left winger Antoine Roussel, has five goals, 12 points and 60 penalty minutes through the first 24 games this season. Last time the Stars played Toronto, Roussel angered the Leafs with a cross-check on Nazem Kadri. Both Kadri and Roussel received 10-minute misconducts and offsetting minors. The game was already a 7-1 blowout in the Stars' favor by that juncture of the game.
The blueline has been a trouble spot for the Stars throughout the season. The rapid emergence of rookie two-way defenseman John Klingberg (three goals, eight points, plus-six in his first 10 NHL games) as a puck mover and righthanded shooting threat has been a godsend to the club. While the rookie has made a few mistakes that have ended up in the Dallas net, he always seems to bounce back quickly. The good plays have far outnumbered the bad ones thus far.
In an effort to continue reshaping the blueline mix, the Stars recently made a surprise trade to swap Brenden Dillon (the team's most physical defenseman by far) to the San Jose Sharks for defenseman Jason Demers. Through his first four games with the Stars, the righthanded Demers has two points (one goal, one assist) and a minus-three rating while playing at least 21 minutes in each game.
Struggling Jordie Benn got back into Dallas lineup on Saturday after sitting several games as a healthy scratch. Former first-round pick Jamie Oleksiak, whose ice time has been severely limited of late, sat out Saturday's game as a healthy scratch. Fellow rookie Jyrki Jokipakka has dressed in each of the last five games and had a pair of assists in Friday's game against Minnesota.
For most of his Dallas tenure, Lehtonen has been the Stars' most valuable player when healthy. That has only been the case sporadically in the early going of the 2014-15 season.
While he's been outstanding at times and has often gotten little help from the team in front of him, the big Finn has allowed a higher volume of stoppable goals than he has in most of his recent seasons. Sealing off the short-side post has been a problem that has cropped up a few times. Lehtonen enters tonight's tilt with a .905 save percentage, 3.03 goals against average, and 9-5-5 record.
Despite his somewhat uneven play this season that coincides with the teamwide inconsistency, Lehtonen remain the backbone of the squad. In recent years, the Stars have chronically struggled to win whenever the backup goalie was in net -- whether it was the once-elite Tim Thomas late last season or the likes of Dan Ellis, Cristopher Nilstorp, Richard Bachman and Andrew Raycroft.
That problem has continued this season. Lindbà¤ck (0-5-0 record, 4.63 goals against average, .861 save percentage) has not even come close to providing the hoped-for upgrade in backup goaltending. In November, Lehtonen appeared to be a little fatigued from overwork by Ruff in some back-to-back/ three-in-four gauntlets but the coach had little other choice because the struggling team needed wins and he could not rely on Lindbà¤ck.
On the Dallas injury front, the club will be without second-year right winger Valeri Nichushkin (hip surgery) until the stretch drive. Rookie shot-blocking defenseman Patrik Nemeth was lost for the season in mid-October when he suffered a severe laceration on his right forearm from an accidental skate cut inflicted by Philadelphia Flyers forward R.J. Umberger.
Maple Leafs outlook
The Maple Leafs have played good hockey of late despite a tendency to get off to some slow starts in first periods. The team has points in four straight games (3-0-1) and is coming off a convincing 6-2 win over the Washington Capitals that saw Toronto seize control quickly and refuse to relinquish its grip on the game. The Maple Leafs also punished the Caps with three power play goals.
On paper at least, tonight's game could be a high-scoring affair. Dallas enters tonight's game tied with Columbus for the worst team goals against average in the NHL (3.46) while Toronto's offense ranks third in the league (3.30 goals per game). Meanwhile, the Stars offense, which can heat up in a hurry, ranks 10th in the NHL (2.88 goals per game). The Leafs rank in the bottom one-third of the NHL in goals against average (2.96, 23rd overall).
Entering tonight's game, which is the second match of a five-game homestand, Phil Kessel leads Toronto in overall scoring with 25 points (11 goals, 14 assists) in 23 games. Tyler Bozak (22 points) shares the goal-scoring lead with 11 goals, while James van Riemsdyk has nine goals and 19 points. Defenseman Dion Phaneuf has 11 points, a plus-10 rating and 42 penalty minutes in 23 games.
On the Toronto injury front, Leo Komarov (head injury sustained in the game against Washington) is questionable for tonight's game. Forwards Carter Ashton (suspension) and Brandon Kozun (ankle) as well as defenseman Roman Polak (lower body) are all unavailable.