Dallas Stars (15-11-1, 31 pts) @ Los Angeles Kings (13-11-4, 30 pts)

9:30 PM CT, December 10, 2011

STAPLES Center, Los Angeles, California

Based on the first game of this five game road trip for the Dallas Stars, these next couple of weeks could be a downer. Dallas has a chance to get back on track tonight as they stay in California and take on LA Kings for the fourth time this season.

The Stars had serious goaltending problems in their 5-2 loss to the San Jose Sharks. Andrew Raycroft was stellar in his first game after Kari Lehtonen went down with an injury, but he has really struggle since then and it reached the tipping point in the game against the Sharks. Raycroft had a steel brick of a glove and couldn't seem to catch any shots or control any rebounds. He ended up getting pulled in the third period for Richard Bachman, who looked pretty good in his first full period of NHL action.

Final

Dallas Stars 2 - San Jose Sharks 5

The Stars fell to the Sharks 5-2 last night in a game in which the outcome was pretty much decided within two minutes. San Jose scored twice on Andrew Raycroft in the first minute and a half of the game, setting the tone for the rest of the night. Raycroft was actually doing a fine job stopping the first shots that the Sharks had. The problem was that he was giving up juicy rebounds on each shot and it wound up costing the Stars.

Raycroft just couldn't block the puck over to safe areas and the defense was beaten to the loose puck by the Sharks forwards. Dallas fell behind 2-0 after the first couple of minutes but were able to fight their way back into the game. Brenden Morrow made his return memorable with an assist on a Mike Ribeiro goal late in the first period and then scoring a power-play (power-play!) goal of his own in the second.

Dallas Stars (15-10-1, 31 pts) @ San Jose Sharks (14-9-1, 29 pts)

9:30 PM CT, December 8, 2011

HP Pavilion, San Jose, California

The four day break between games for the Stars has done wonders for the team. Brenden Morrow, Trevor Daley and most importantly Alex Goligoski will be returning to the ice tonight, just in time for a big divisional game against the San Jose Sharks.

The Stars have missed the three, Goligoski especially, as the offense and the PP took a nosedive. Goose should be thrust right back into the point position on the PP so hopefully that gets things kickstarted again. The Stars just haven't been right with the man-advantage since Goose was injured. One interesting thing of note is that Goose will be paired with Philip Larsen, a guy that the Stars hope turns into a mini-Goligoski.

Tonight marks the start of a five game road-trip for the Stars, one that will take them from the West Coast to the East Coast. It couldn't start with a much bigger than this one as Dallas takes on a tough divisional foe.

Dallas is coming off a very odd 5-4 loss to the New York Islanders. The game included a second period where seven goals were scored as defense and goaltending took a nosedive. If they play a poor defensive game against the Sharks tonight, they'll get a severe beating from one of the most explosive teams in the league.

Three news stories of note came down about the Stars today, the biggest one being the return of three injured players. Trevor Daley and Alex Goligoski will be returning for tomorrow's big game against the San Jose Sharks, the start of a five game road trip for the Stars. Brenden Morrow is likely to return.

Goligoski hasn't played since a November 11 game against the Pittsburgh Penguins, when he broke his thumb on a blocked shot. Morrow has been out since Nov. 21 and Daley hasn't seen the ice since Nov. 26. The biggest return might be from Goligoski as he'll be immediately be thrust back into the point on the power-play. The Stars have been terrible with the man-advantage since he was injured, going 2 of 27 in 11 games.

Also coming down today was Mark Fistric's punishment of his hit on New York Islanders forward Nino Niederreiter. Fistric was suspended for three games as Shanahan deemed that Fistric charged on the hit. Fistric can be seen leaving his feet and getting his shoulder right into Niederreiter's face. Nino suffered a concussion and will be out for an undetermined amount of time.

The suspension wasn't that surprising, but it lacks consistency. Tomas Vincour took an identical hit from Luke Schenn of the Toronto Maple Leafs in their game on November 25. Schenn left his feet as well, though not as much as Fistric and elbowed Vincour right in the mouth. Vincour didn't suffer a concussion, though he did leave the game for a while before returning. Schenn didn't receive a suspension from the league office.

Fistric will miss games against the Sharks, LA Kings and New York Rangers. His comeback game? Against the New York Islanders of course. Adam Pardy should see more time with Fistric out of the lineup.

The final (12:30 CT) piece of news that came down for the Stars (per @andrewdsp) was that they traded little used forward Krys Barch and a 6th round pick to the Florida Panthers for Jake Hauswirth and a 5th round pick. Barch wasn't getting any playing time here and the roster depth as well as the recent play of Eric Nystrom and Tomas Vincour have made him expendable. This year would have been Barch's 6th year with the Stars., a time when he has mostly been the Stars designated fight guy.

Hauswirth, 23-years-old,  is a minor leaguer in the Panthers system and has yet to see time in the NHL. He's a 6'5", 215 lb forward so he's definitely got some size to him. He went undrafted and first signed on to play with the Washinton Capitals minor league system. He was traded earlier this year to Florida and now makes his way to the Stars system. He'll be somewhere in the Stars minor league teams, probably on the Idaho Steelheads as he stays in the ECHL.

Final

Dallas Stars 3 - Ottawa Senators 2

Maybe this injury situation isn't as bad as everyone previously thought. Playing without five key players for the second straight game, the Stars made a fantastic comeback in the third period to beat the Ottawa Senators 3-2. The Stars stuck true to the nickname that they have given themselves lately, the PeskyStars, by just hanging around the whole game and playing tough.

Ottawa took the initial lead when Philip Larsen was run over near the team benches by Jared Cowen. The rest of the Stars were making a line change in anticipation of Larsen getting out of danger so that left Erik Condra wide open on the right side of the ice. Condra took a pass from Cowen, skated into the Stars zone and fired one over Raycroft's glovehand into the top corner.

The Stars would answer quickly, getting a power-play (power-play!!) goal for the first time in nine games as Steve Ott tipped in a Toby Petersen shot. With the injuries to important power-play guys like Alex Goligoski, Trevor Daley and Brenden Morrow, the Stars had gone 0 of 20 on the man advantage in their previous eight games so this power-play goal was a once in a blue moon kind of deal.

A boring second period followed the first (really, it was boring, I think I fell asleep). The team combined for only eight shots and both sides just got stuck in a bog.

Ottawa Senators (12-10-2, 26 pts) @ Dallas Stars (14-9-1, 29 pts)

7:30 PM CT, December 1, 2011

American Airlines Center, Dallas, Texas

If Stars fans had known that two months into the season, their team would be tied for the lead in the Pacific Division and only four points out of first place in the Western Conference, they would have taken that in a heartbeat. Throw in the fact that injuries have decimated the roster and the Stars still somehow find themselves in this position is a small miracle. The PeskyStars begin their December schedule tonight when the Ottawa Senators come into town.

Dallas is hoping to build off of a much needed 3-1 win over the Colorado Avalanche on Monday night. Andrew Raycroft was incredible in that game, stopping nearly everything as he put on a Kari Lehtonen-like game and getting his first win of the season. No players are returning from injury tonight for Dallas so they need to stay resilient as they take on a tough Eastern Conference foe.

After a fantastic October, the month of November took a horrible turn as the Stars were once again ravaged by injuries. Six players missed substantial time in November so the numbers will be skewed for a few guys, especially on the special teams as Alex Goligoski and Brenden Morrow missed some time.

A few young guys also got called up from the Texas Stars and got good amounts of ice time and they'll continue to see time well into the month of December.

There were 11 games in October while Dallas saw the ice 13 games in November. The Stars also played one more overtime game this month.

The stats below are only for the month of November unless noted otherwise. For the power-play and shorthanded times, I've put in their times for November with the season totals in parenthesis.

The Stars head into their December schedule with a 14-9-1 (29 pts) record. That puts them in first place in the Pacific Division by one point over the LA Kings and in the third spot in the Western Conference. As of November 29, the Stars are 8-3-1 at home and 6-6-0 on the road.

The reward for their solid play at the start of the season? Their longest road trip of the season that takes them from West Coast to East Coast as they experience some games against the Eastern Conference. Dallas plays 13 games in the month of December, seven of them against their Eastern foes.

They only have three games against teams in the Pacific Division, one each against the Sharks, Kings and Ducks so if they catch a break with all these injuries that they are dealing with.

Here's the schedule for December, with a record for each team as of November 29.

Two game home stand

• Thurs. Dec 1 vs Ottawa (11-10-2, 24 pts, 5-6-1 road record). - Both Brenden Morrow and Trevor Daley are expected to be back for this game.

• Sat. Dec 3 vs NY Islanders (6-11-4, 16 pts, 1-5-2 road record).

Five game road trip

• Thurs. Dec 8 at San Jose Sharks (13-7-1, 27 pts, 6-4-1 home record).

• Sat. Dec 10 at LA Kings (12-8-4, 28 pts, 7-6-1 home record).

• Tues. Dec 13 at NY Rangers (12-5-3, 27 pts, 6-1-1 home record).

• Thurs. Dec 15 at NY Islanders (6-11-4, 16 pts, 5-6-2 home record). - Alex Goligoski is expected to be back by either this or the NY Rangers game.

• Fri. Dec 16 at NJ Devils (12-9-1, 25 pts, 5-4-1 home record). - Adam Burish should be back by this game

Three game home stand

• Mon. Dec 19 vs Anaheim Ducks (6-13-4, 16 pts, 2-5-4 road record). - This is the earliest that Kari Lehtonen can return. I doubt he'll be back here though.

• Wed. Dec 21 vs Philadelphia Flyers (13-7-3, 29 pts, 7-3-1 road record). 

• Fri. Dec 23 vs Nashville Predators (11-8-4, 26 pts, 7-5-1 road record).

One game road trip

• Mon. Dec 26 at St. Louis Blues (13-8-2, 28 pts, 8-2-1 home record).

Start of a three game home stand

• Thurs. Dec 29 vs Columbus Blue Jackets (6-14-3, 15 pts, 1-7-2 road record).

• Sat. Dec 31 vs Boston Bruins (14-7-1, 29 pts, 5-2-0 road record).

Final

Dallas Stars 3 - Colorado Avalanche 1

For one game at least, the Stars injury woes didn't come back to haunt them as they put away the Colorado Avalanche 3-1. Andrew Raycroft put in a Kari Lehtonen-like performance, stopping 35 of 36 shots (many of them at point-blank range), and Michael Ryder played through a nagging leg injury to score two big goals. 

Stars fan couldn't have asked for much more than what they saw last night. They saw what Raycroft could be when he's on his game. They saw just how pesky the Stars could be despite playing without two of their top four defensemen and two important forwards (including the captain). They saw the Ryder-Benn-Eriksson line return to form and take over a game. In their first game dealing with all these major injuries, this was about as good as anyone could hope for.

Dallas Stars (13-9-1, 27 points) @ Colorado Avalanche (10-12-1, 21 points)

8:00 PM CT, November 28, 2011

Pepsi Center, Denver, Colorado

It's just two months into the season, but the Stars are now officially in gut-check time. The Stars had a horrible game on Saturday, both on the ice and injury-wise, and they now come into this Colorado Avalanche game needing to just try and gut out some points.

The storyline in the Stars previous game wasn't the 3-0 loss to the Phoenix Coyotes, but the potentially devastating injuries suffered by Kari Lehtonen, Trevor Daley and Vernon Fiddler. Since that game, we've learned that Lehtonen has a groin injury, Daley has has a back problem and Fiddler had his own groin injury to deal with.