Dallas Stars (11-3-0, 22 pts) @ Pittsburgh Penguins (9-3-3, 21 pts)

6:00 PM CT, November 11, 2011

CONSOL Energy Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Let me go ahead and get this out of the way, Sidney Crosby won't be playing tonight. Now that tidbit is over so we can move on to the real news; the top two teams in the NHL find themselves on opposite ends of the ice tonight.

The Stars come into this game (the third of a four game road trip) about as confident as a team could be. Dallas has won 4 games in a row (five of their last six road games), scoring a total of 20 goals in those 4 games and provided the Washington Capitals with their first home loss of the season in their last game. Dallas went from a struggling offensive team to an absolute juggernaut in the past week. The Ryder-Benn-Eriksson line is the hottest in the league, with those three combining for 22 points (22!) in the last three games.

Final

Dallas Stars 5 - Washington Capitals 2

The Stars couldn't have asked for a better continuation to their 5-2 win over the Carolina Hurricanes when they took on the Capitals last night. Playing one of the best teams in one of the toughest venues in the league, the Stars outworked, outplayed and just pounded the Washington Capitals into submission in their 5-2 victory.

The victory puts the Stars (11-3-0, 22 pts) atop the NHL in wins and points and shows that this team has the ability and tenacity to play with the big boys in the NHL. The loss was the first at home for the Capitals (9-4-0, 18 pts).

Dallas played one of their best games in years. They were working hard and winning pucks battles all over the ice and just seemed to want the game more than Washington did. Dallas had a couple of different goal of the year candidates from Michael Ryder and Eric Nystrom. Jamie Benn and Trevor Daley in particular were really great in their checking this game.

Dallas Stars (10-3-0, 20 pts) @ Washington Capitals (9-3-0, 18 pts)

6:00 PM, November 8, 2011

Verizon Center, Washington, District of Columbia

The Stars face their toughest test of the season tonight when they travel to play the Washington Capitals. The Capitals are undefeated this year at home, going 6-0-0 and are the second highest scoring team in the league (3rd highest scoring team at home).

Washington, however, has struggled in their past week of games. They are coming off a 5-3 loss to the New York Islanders on Saturday, their third loss in their last five games. Aside from losing three games, they've also given up 5+ goals in three times and gotten outshot in four out of five. They've been losing, been outplayed and playing bad defense. If not for some heroics from Niklas Backstrom in during their game against the Anaheim Ducks, the Caps would have lost four out of their last five games.

Final

Dallas Stars 5 - Carolina Hurricanes 2

The Stars got off to a great start on their second big road trip of the season, beating the Carolina Hurricanes 5-2. The win gives Dallas 10 wins, the first team to do so this season and puts them in first place in the West with 20 points.

The Stars offense continued their recent hot streak, scoring five goals in two periods after they put up a seven-spot against the Avalanche in their last game. They started strong in this game with Eric Nystrom scoring off some slick passes from Sheldon Souray and Vernon Fiddler. Nystrom has scored a goal in three of his last four games and is looking like one of the best pickups of the year. It's amazing that no one wanted him when he was put on waivers.

Final OT

Dallas Stars 7 - Colorado Avalanche 6

Wow. Holy Smokes. Unbelievable. Exclamations are pretty much all you can say after watching a game like the one that the Stars and Avalanche had last night. Dallas overcame three different deficits, there were 13 combined goals, five of them from power-plays, Matt Duchene put on a clinic and had a hat trick.

Coming into this game, coach Glen Gulutzan wanted to avoid a run-and-gun game that the Avalanche like to play. Those wishes were dashed in the first few minutes as it became clear that the Avs were going to dictate the pace of the game. Dallas looked really rusty in the 1st period. They had no energy and just seemed a step behind the Avs skaters. Colorado scored twice in the 1st period, getting contributions from Jay McClement and Duchene's first tally of the night. The Stars took three penalties in the first and it came back to bite them.

Coming into this season, the underlying question for the Dallas Stars was, "who can replace Brad Richards?". Richards logged the heaviest minutes (around 22 per game) among all of the Stars forwards and was a substantial piece of the power-play unit, even if it was ineffective for much of the season.

1 month into the season, it looks like that prospect isn't as daunting as it first appeared with the Stars near the top of the league with an 8-3-0 record. They're tied with the Penguins and Capitals for first in the NHL with eight wins and currently sit second in the Western Conference due to tiebreakers. The Chicago Blackhawks sit in front of them because they have a better goal differential (+8 compared to the Stars +5).

Thus far, the Stars have looked very good so I wanted to take a look at how the minutes have been distributed now that the team is much deeper and doesn't have to rely so much on one guy (even if that one guy was a top-5 or top-10 player in the league).

New Jersey Devils (4-3-1, 9 pts) @ Dallas Stars (7-3-0, 14 pts)

7:00 PM, October 29, 2011

American Airlines Center, Dallas, Texas

The Stars have a chance to get back on track after suffering their first home loss of the season to the LA Kings on Thursday. The New Jersey Devils are a middle-of-the-road team in the Eastern Conference and are coming off a 5-3 loss to the Phoenix Coyotes.

The Devils are on the final game of their four game road trip that has taken them across the country. They've gone from Pittsburgh to LA to Phoenix and now to Dallas. They've lost 2 of those 3 games and fatigue could be a problem for them. Goalie Martin Brodeur has a shoulder injury so Johan Hedburg is the likely starter in net for the Devils. He's 4-2-1 on the year with a 2.31 GAA and a .926 save percentage.

Their defense has also had a lot of trouble, allowing four goals in 3 of their last 4 games. Dallas certainly has a chance to score a good amount.

NJ is not a good power-play team, ranked 26th in the NHL, and has gone 1 for 11 in its last 4 games on the PP. Despite their woes on the PP, the Devils have some very good offensive players in Patrik Elias, Ilya Kovalchuk and Zach Parise. If that line gets going, then the Stars could be in trouble. 

Dallas is coming off a disappointing 5-3 loss to the Kings. They actually played well in the game but just took too many bad penalties (which has happened often as of late) and couldn't re-gather the momentum that they had at the beginning of the game. The Stars need to play smart today or else they'll have to rely too much on Kari Lehtonen again.

Dallas has no injuries of note. 

New Jersey has a few. G Martin Brodeur (shoulder) and F Eric Boulton (hand) could play tonight if needed. F Travis Zajac (Achilles) and F Jacob Josefson (clavicle) are definitely out for this game.

This will be the Stars last game for a while. After this, their next game is against the Colorado Avalanche on Friday, Nov. 4.

Final

Dallas Stars 3 - Los Angeles Kings 5

A game that originally looked like a classic goalie duel turned, instead, into a goalfest that was won by the LA Kings, 5-3.

Dallas (7-3-0, 14 pts) was able to finally halt Jonathan Quick's shutout streak, but found themselves with goalie troubles of their own as Kari Lehtonen let four shots slip by him before the Kings put in an empty netter at the end of the game. This was the first home loss for the Stars, the first loss of Lehtonen's season and the first game in which he allowed more than two goals in a game.

Things started out well in the beginning as Dallas took a 1-0 lead into the first intermission. Trevor Daley scored a power-play goal and Dallas was able to kill of a 5-on-3 at the end of the period. It looked like momentum was in their favor but things fell apart in the second period.

The Stars took three penalties in the first and that undisciplined play continued in the second as they took three more. The Kings were able to take advantage of the Stars troubles and scored three goals in the second, including one on the PP.

LA Kings (5-2-1, 11 pts) @ Dallas Stars (7-2-0, 14 pts)

7:30 PM, October 27, 2011

American Airlines Center, Dallas, Texas

It's a classic case of the immovable object against the unstoppable force. On one side is a goalie with a spotless win record. On the other side is a goalie who hasn't allowed a goal in three games. Something has to give.

The Dallas Stars were probably hoping that LA Kings coach Terry Murray would sit Quick in tonight's game instead of on Tuesday. Instead, Quick returns tonight and we get the goalie matchup that we wanted in the first meeting between these teams. Quick has absolutely dominated the Stars in his career, winning his last five games against Dallas and sporting a 11-3-0 overall record them.

The Kings won the first matchup this season against Dallas in a 1-0 game that had the atmosphere of a critical playoff game. Both teams played crisp clean hockey and the outcome was in doubt for the entire game. Kari Lehtonen didn't play in that game, but Andrew Raycroft played just as well in stopping 23 of 24 shots. 

Dallas is coming off a comeback 3-2 win over the Phoenix Coyotes while the Kings lost their game against the NJ Devils 3-0, a game that backup goalie Jonathan Bernier started.

The Stars might be in a bit of luck as the Kings, aside from Quick, limp into this game. While they did have a four-game winning streak before that loss to the Devils, the Kings have had some trouble. LA has scored only three goals in their last three games and struggled to generate power-plays with only five chances in their last three game (they scored on one of them). They've been outshot in five straight games and their top offensive players have been largely absent.

This game is the first of a three-game homestand for Dallas, who have been 4-0-0 on home ice so far this season. They are one of only three teams taht are undefeated at home (the others are Washington and Detroit).

Drew Doughty (shoulder) is questionable for the Kings. Dallas has no injuries of note.

Final SO

Dallas 3 - Phoenix 2

Maybe next time the Dallas Stars and the Phoenix Coyotes play we can just skip the formalities, save the viewers some time and go straight to the shootout. The Stars won another tight game against the Coyotes this time, making a last minute comeback again against these Coyotes and winning it in a shootout, 3-2.

Dating back to last year, that makes three straight games that the Stars and Coyotes have gone into a shootout and six straight games where the final score between these two teams was decided by one goal. In short, when these two teams play, expect a tight match that comes down to the last seconds.

In their first matchup this year, the Stars tied the game up with 27 seconds left in the game and were able to best Mike Smith in the shootout. This time the Stars tied the game up with 1:01 left on the clock in the third period, saving Stars fans 34 seconds of anguish. They were again able to beat Mike Smith in the shootout, although both goalies were excellent this time around.