Dallas Stars Visit Minnesota Wild to Continue Road Trip
The Dallas Stars will take on the Minnesota Wild tonight in Minneapolis and they’re hoping for a better result than in Tuesday night’s game versus Winnipeg.
Records and Scores
Dallas Stars
The Stars are (3-3-1) through their first seven games of the 2016-17 season. They fell to the Winnipeg Jets, 4-1, on Tuesday night and have been searching for consistency since the season began. Dallas will be looking to get on the right track tonight in Minnesota.
Minnesota Wild
The Wild (5-2-1) are currently leading the Central Division. They most recently beat the Buffalo Sabres Thursday night, 4-0. They’ll look to continue their success when they host the Stars tonight.
Storylines
Injuries Continuing
The Stars’ biggest storyline this season has been injuries. It’s been beaten to death, but when over half a dozen forwards have missed time due to injury it’s important.
Dallas is struggling without some of their best and most familiar forwards. The NHL leader in goals per game last season has given up four more goals than they’ve scored. That’s concerning being that they were such a dynamic offensive team last year.
However, this is a new season. They have new players and the dynamics of the team have certainly changed over the course of the offseason, but injuries have been the biggest influence as to why the Stars aren’t the team they were expected to be this season.
Inconsistency
Dallas’ other biggest achilles heel has been their inability to be consistent. The Stars can play a complete game, one in which they are successful in all three zones, and then play a disheveled game the very next night. That kind of play is dangerous in a league and a conference that is always so close.
The Stars have to play tonight like they know they can. There can’t be many more lackluster games if they hope to be a truly competitive team this year. Although they’re less than ten games into the season, there’s no time like the present to play well.
Points earned now are just as important, if not more, than those earned down the line. Dallas, however, hasn’t taken full advantage of their opportunities and if they continue to play the way they’ve been, they’ll be planning vacations for late April.
Injuries
Dallas will be without Cody Eakin (knee), Mattias Janmark (knee), Jason Spezza (undisclosed), Patrick Sharp (head), Ales Hemsky (groin) and Jiri Hudler (illness).
Minnesota will play without Jared Spurgeon (upper body) in the line-up.
Line Combinations
Dallas Stars
Antoine Roussel – Tyler Seguin – Jiri Hudler
Jamie Benn – Radek Faksa – Patrick Eaves
Curtis McKenzie – Devin Shore – Brett Ritchie
Adam Cracknell – Gemel Smith – Lauri Korpikoski
Patrik Nemeth – John Klingberg
Minnesota Wild
Zach Parise – Mikko Koivu – Mikael Granlund
Nino Niederreiter – Eric Staal – Charlie Coyle
Teemu Pulkkinen – Joel Eriksson Ek – Jason Pominville
Jason Zucker – Mac Dalpe – Chris Stewart
Jonas Brodin – Christian Folin
Marco Scannella – Nate Prosser
Predictions
The Stars will try their best, but fall to the Minnesota Wild 3-2 in regulation.
More from Blackout Dallas
This article originally appeared on 
