Dallas Stars (13-12-3, 29 pts) @ Colorado Avalanche (10-14-4, 24 pts)

8:30 PM CT

Pepsi Center, Denver, Colorado

The Avs – 15th in the West

Rankings:

Goals – 21st, Goals Against – 27th, Power Play – 25th, Penalty Kill – 22nd

Back in the first week of March, the Avs did the impossible and took down the Chicago Blackhawks in regulation time. They followed that up with an OT win over the San Jose Sharks, but it’s been all downhill from there.

Those two wins are the only two that Colorado has this month in nine games. The Avs have lost their last four games and given up a combined 20 goals in those losses.

Semyon Varlamov has had the wheels shot off his wagon and taken the loss in each of those four games. Things just aren’t going too well for the Avs defensively these days.

Offensively, it’s a different story. Colorado has been able to score goals in bunches and has done enough for the win on that side of the ice.

Matt Duchene leads the team in all offensive categories (12 goals, 19 assists, 31 points) and has been a Stars killer in the past few years. He’s riding a three game points streak and has a point in six of the last seven. Dallas held him pointless in the first meeting.

Another guy on a hot streak right now is Gabriel Landeskog. The young captain has had a really poor season but has shown some spark lately with points in four of the last five games to double his season total to 10. He’s scored in three straight, which is worrisome for Dallas.

A couple of other guys to mention, P.A Parenteau is tied for the team lead in goals with Duchene and has 11 points this month.

 Ryan O’Reilly held out for a long time but he’s back and producing again with six points in nine games. He wasn’t around for the first meeting and will be a big boost for the Avs.

Varlamov should be starting tonight. Colorado is really healthy. Only Steve Downie and Ryan Wilson are out tonight.

Possible line combos:

Landeskog – Duchene – Parenteau

Jones – Stastny – Hejduk

McGinn – O’Reilly – Kobasew

McLeod – Mitchell – Palushaj

D-Pairings:

Johnson – Hejda

O’Brien – Elliott

Hunwick – O’Byrne

Texas Stars

The Stars finally got themselves back into the win column last week with two wins in three games (points in all three games). Texas had been riding a five game losing streak so it’s good to see them back and successful again.

Jack Campbell was the man of the week as he started two games and played a majority of the third game. Cris Nilstorp started the first game of the week but suffered an injury 25 minutes into the game and had to leave. Campbell stepped in and stopped 17 of 18 shots en route to 4-3 win.

Campbell would stop 48 of 54 shots the rest of the week and went 1-0-1. He’s going to see a lot of time as long as Nilstorp is out.

Scoring during the week was pretty well-rounded. Nine different players saw the puck hit the back of the net (multiple times for three players) and Matt Fraser led the way with three goals during the week.

Texas still maintains a four-point lead in the Western Conference and is just one point behind the Syracuse Crunch for the league lead in points. There’s just one point left in the season.

Mar. 19 – San Antonio Rampage @ Texas Stars

Mar. 22 – Rochester Americans @ Texas Stars

Mar. 23 – Charlotte Checkers @ Texas Stars

Anaheim Ducks (19-3-3, 41 pts) @ Dallas Stars (12-11-2, 26 pts)

7:30 PM CT

American Airlines Center, Dallas, Texas

The Ducks – 2nd in the West

Rankings:

Goals – 3rd, Goals Against – 7th, Power Play – 1st, Penalty Kill – 27th

Lost in all the hoopla over the Blackhawks points streak has been the steady (and stellar) play of the Anaheim Ducks. The Ducks have just one fewer loss than Chicago and have a game in hand.

They’ve scored more goals, have a better home record and their four-game winning streak is the longest in the Western Conference. Very few people are talking about the Ducks, but they just might be the best team in the NHL.

Anaheim has actually been riding Jonas Hiller during this winning streak. He’s won three of the four games and has given up just three goals. It looks like he’s fixed his early season struggles and makes the Hiller/Fasth tandem one of the best in the NHL right now.

Fasth suffered some kind of upper-body injury during the last game who knows what his status could be for tonight.

Offensively for the Ducks, everything runs through the newly re-signed Ryan Getzlaf. He leads the team in goals (10), assists (21) and points. He’s had multi-point efforts in four of the last five games and just had a four-game point streak broken. Dallas held him pointless in the first meeting this season and will need to do it again.

Bobby Ryan has also been playing well lately. He’s registered a point in eight of the last nine games. Corey Perry has registered at least a point in 11 of the last 13 games, but is suspended for the next four games so Dallas lucks out here.

Noted Stars killer Teemu Selanne is just about the only main guy in a slump. He’s had only one point in the last six games and only two goals in the past month. With Perry out of the lineup, a little extra attention should go Selanne’s way so he doesn’t get going again.

With Fasth’s status up in the air, I would say Hiller gets the start again tonight.

Anaheim is also without Perry, Nick Bonino (flu) and Brad Staubitz (skate blade to the face). Kyle Palmieri has been out with an upper-body injury but should be back tonight.

Possible line combos:

Ryan – Getzlaf – Selanne

Beleskey – Koivu – Palmieri

Winnik – Cogliano – Maroon

McMillan – Holland – Etem

D-Pairings:

Fowler – Beauchemin

Lydman – Souray

Sbisa – Allen

Nashville Predators (10-9-6, 26 pts) @ Dallas Stars (12-10-2, 26 pts)

7:30 PM CT

American Airlines Center, Dallas, Texas

The Predators – 11th in the West

Rankings:

Goals – 30th, Goals Against – 4th, Power Play – 19th, Penalty Kill – 26th

There’s really not too much to Nashville these days. Their offense is as horrible as ever, and Pekka Rinne is still as awesome as ever. The Preds have scored just a single goal in four of the past five games with a 6-0 aberration victory over the Edmonton Oilers squeezed in there.

Those six goals could have been a sign of some life in the Preds offense but that notion was quickly laid to rest as leading scorer (seriously, he leads in all offensive categories for Nashville) Colin Wilson was placed on the IR with an upper-body injury. As if that wasn’t bad enough, first-liner Patric Hornqvist is also on the IR with an upper-body injury.

Where does that leave Nashville in terms of offense? Well, it’s really only Shea Weber at this point. Weber has five assists in the last three games and is on a three-game point streak. He’s literally the only man on Nashville now that is providing a steady amount of points.

His partner on defense, Roman Josi, lit up the Stars in the last meeting to the tune of two goals, two assists and the game-winning OT goal. However, he’s been pointless in the five games since then so I’m more than willing to chalk that game up as an anomaly.

Rinne will be starting tonight for Nashville and he’s been stellar. His peripheral numbers are once again in the top five of the league and he would’ve been the league leader in wins if he had any offensive help. He’s had a few troubles with Dallas though and gave up four goals in the last meeting.

The Predators will be without Wilson, Hornqvist and Hal Gill (lower body).

Possible line combos:

Kostitsyn – Legwand – Spaling

Boychuk – Fisher – Erat

Bourque – Gaustad – Butler

Yip – Smith – Clune

D-Pairings:

Weber – Josi

Klein – Ellis

Blum – Hannan

Texas Stars

Texas had another tough week as they lost both of their games last week to extend their losing streak to five games. One of those losses was in the shootout so they did manage at least one point.

Jack Campbell and Cristopher Nilstorp split starts last week and both guys struggled. Campbell was pulled midway through the second period of his start after allowing four goals on just 15 shots. Nilstorp was a perfect 14 of 14 in his time in that game but Texas came up one goal short.

Nilstorp started the second game of the week and allowed four goals on 25 shots before losing in a shootout that lasted 12 rounds.

Campbell has hit a rough patch and has lost his last three starts. He’s given up nine goals on 59 shots. Nilstorp has, amusingly, lost his all three of his last starts in a shootout.

The Stars weren’t too bad offensively with seven goals scored. All of the scoring came from pretty much just four guys though: Travis Morin (one goal, four points), Matt Fraser (one goal, two points), Tomas Vincour (three goals) and Colton Sceviour (one goal, three points). The final goal from last week came off the stick of Maxime Fortunus.

Despite the losing streak, Texas still sits atop the Western Conference and just three points behind the AHL leader, Syracuse Crunch. There’s one month remaining in the regular season for Texas.

Mar. 13 – Abbotsford Heat @ Texas Stars

Mar. 15 – Texas Stars @ Charlotte Checkers

Mar. 17 – Texas Stars @ Charlotte Checkers (again)

Dallas Stars (11-9-2, 24 pts) @ Los Angeles Kings (12-7-2, 26 pts)

9:30 PM CT

STAPLES Center, Los Angeles, California

The Kings– 4th in the West

Rankings:

Goals – 13th, Goals Against – 6th, Power Play – 17th, Penalty Kill – 10th

After a very sluggish start to the season, LA is suddenly on a tear. They’ve won nine of the last 11 games (their two losses against Chicago and Vancouver) and have found both their offense and defense once again.

In seven of those wins, the Kings allowed only one goal and Jonathan Quick is starting to look a little like the Conn Smythe winner from last season. He’s also historically been excellent against Dallas (13-3-0, 2.15 GAA, .925 SV%) so expect him to be good tonight.

 If for some reason he can’t go tonight, Jonathan Bernier has also been quite good this season. He’s responsible for five of those seven one goal against efforts and has a stellar 1.92 GAA coming into tonight. He’s lost only one game this season in seven starts, though he was pulled in the Kings last game after allowing four goals.

Offensively, their top guys have awoken. Anze Kopitar leads the team with 20 points and has registered at least a point in 12 of the last 15 games.

Jeff Carter has suddenly turned into goal scoring machine Jeff Carter and has scored in seven of the last eight games (including a hat trick against Nashville). There’s only one player ahead of him in the league in that category now, Steven Stamkos.

Mike Richards has been a steady source of points and hell, some dude named Jake Muzzin scored twice and had three points in the Kings improbable comeback against the Blues on Tuesday.

Throw in the fact that the Kings are 7-1-1 at home this season and this will be a big test for Dallas tonight.

LA is really healthy as well. Only defensemen Willie Mitchell (knee) and Matt Greene (back) are out.

The biggest key in tonight’s game will be the third period. The Kings are a league best +13 in goal differential in the final frame and have scored 13 goals in the third periods of their last four wins.

Possible line combos:

Carter – Kopitar – Brown

Penner – Richards – Williams

King – Stoll – Lewis

Clifford – Nolan – Fraser

D-Pairings:

Doughty – Voynov

Martinez – Scuderi

Muzzin – Drewiske

Texas Stars

Texas had their first bad week in a looooong time as they lost all three of their games last week (one shootout loss) to snap their five game winning streak.

The losses (two to OKC and one to Chicago) constitute the first three game losing streak the Stars have had since the very beginning of the season. Texas is still first in the overall standings, but they’ve lost momentum heading into this week as the roster fluctuations finally caught up with the team.

Jack Campbell started the first two games of the week and Cris Nilstorp started the third. Campbell stopped 39 of 44 shots while Nilstorp saved 25 of 29. Neither goalie was stellar during the week and the rest of team struggled as well.

Colton Scevior was the most productive with one goal and four assists but he was pretty much it during the week. Only two other players managed more than one point during the week: Justin Dowling and Matt Fraser (each with two points).

Mar. 05 – Chicago Wolves @ Texas Stars

Mar. 08 – San Antonio Rampage @ Texas Stars

Edmonton Oilers (7-7-4, 18 pts) @ Dallas Stars (10-8-2, 22 pts)

7:30 PM CT

American Airlines Center, Dallas, Texas

The Oilers– 13th in the West

Rankings:

Goals – 27th, Goals Against – 15th, Power Play – 5th, Penalty Kill – 4th

Things have not been great for the Oilers this month. Edmonton has only won three out of 11 games in February and has seen their offense sputter throughout the month.

The Oilers have scored three or more goals only twice this month (not coincidently winning each time) and has seen the defense give up at least three goals in eight of the 11 games. A young team that was supposed to be exciting hasn’t quite come to fruition.

Nikolai Khabibulin has started three of the past four games for the Oilers but that’s not going to be the case tonight. He’s on the IR now with some kind of lower body injury so that means Devan Dubnyk in net tonight.

Dubnyk has started only two games since Edmonton last played Dallas and things haven’t gone so well. He was pulled after giving up three goals in the first period to the Colorado Avalanche and then presided over a 3-1 loss to the Minnesota Wild. He’s off his game and hopefully Dallas can take advantage.

Offensively for Edmonton, Sam Gagner still leads the way with 18 points (five goals, 13 assists). He’s recorded points in four of the last five games but has been held in check against the Stars so far this year (one point in two games).

Aside from Gagner though, it’s been pretty quiet for everyone else. Leading goal scorer Ales Hemsky has been pointless for the past four games and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins has only two points the entire month.

Edmonton does get a boost with Taylor Hall back in the lineup after serving a two game suspension.

Besides Khabibulin, Edmonton will also be without Teemu Hartikainen, Anton Lander and Shawn Horcoff.

Possible line combos:

Hall – RNH – Eberle

Yakupov – Gagner – Hemsky

Smyth – Belanger – Petrell

Paajarvi – Vande Velde – Eager

D-Pairings:

J. Schultz – N. Schultz

Smid – Petry

Fistric – Potter

Dallas Stars (9-8-2, 20 pts) @ Columbus Blue Jackets (5-12-2, 12 pts)

6:00 PM CT

Nationwide Arena, Columbus, Ohio

The Blue Jackets – 15th in the West

Rankings:

Goals – 30th, Goals Against – 20th, Power Play – 28th, Penalty Kill – 9th

What’s to say about the Blue Jackets? They’re still very very bad and are wallowing at the bottom of the NHL standings heading into tonight. They’ve won only five games all year (three in February) and have yet to string two wins together.

The thing is one of those wins this season came against these Dallas Stars and Columbus hasn’t been playing terrible hockey lately. Their last three losses (to solid teams like Anaheim, St. Louis and Chicago) have all been by just one goal and they’ve been on an extended six game road trip.

CBJ comes back home tonight to host a weary beat-up Dallas team that’s been terrible on those back-to-backs. The Blue Jackets are not a good team but not quite as horrible as people might make them out to be.

Sergei Bobrovsky should be getting the nod tonight between the pipes.

They’ll be without their top two defensemen James Wisniewski (broken foot) and Jack Johnson (upper body) and center Brandon Dubinsky (knee). Top center Artem Anisimov is doubtful with a head injury.

Possible line combos:

Foligno – Brassard – Umberger

Letestu – Johansen – Dorsett

Calvert – MacKenzie – Prospal

Gillies – Drazenovic – Boll

D-Pairings:

Tyutin – Nikitin

Moore – Aucoin

Erixon – Goloubef

Texas Stars

At this point everyone is just left to wonder how the hell Texas is doing this. Despite the continued line shuffling and call-ups to Dallas and just the general roster turnover, the Texas Stars managed to win all three of their games last week (all on the road).

The Stars have now won five in a row (six of their last seven) and sit atop the AHL standings. They were able to do it again this week despite losing Cristopher Nilstorp, Matt Fraser and then Jordie Benn to the Dallas Stars and a bunch of unknowns were on the roster (William Wrenn? Gord Baldwin? Justin Dowling? Bretton Cameron? Austin Fyten? Who are these people?).

The heroes of the week were Jack Campbell, Tomas Vincour and Jamie Oleksiak.

Campbell started and won all three games. He stopped 77 of 83 shots during the week and was huge in a shootout victory over Lake Erie (stopped five of six attempts). Campbell has now won five straight.

Vincour was the team’s leading scorer during the week with six points (three goals, three assists) while Oleksiak made huge play after huge play on the offensive end of the ice.

The BigRig had three goals during the week including a game tying goal with a minute left against Lake Erie and a subsequent shootout extending goal in that same game (Texas won two rounds later on a Tom Wandell shot). He also had two power play goals just a day later and was called up again to Dallas with all the injuries they have on the blue line.

Texas will throw out their Frankenstein lineup again this week that’s now without the recently called-up Oleksiak and Carl Sneep (though Sneep is back in the AHL now). They finish off a four game road trip this week and enter a five game homestand.

Feb. 26 – Texas Stars @ OKC Barons

Mar. 1 – Chicago Wolves @ Texas Stars

Mar. 2 – OKC Barons @ Texas Stars