Columbus Blue Jackets (9-22-5, 23 pts) @ Dallas Stars (20-14-1, 41 pts)

7:30 PM CT, December 29, 2011

American Airlines Center, Dallas, Texas

If Kari Lehtonen wanted to try and ease his way back into the lineup, there might not be a better team to do that against than the Columbus Blue Jackets. Lethonen makes his long awaited return to the Stars lineup tonight after missing the past month (12 games) due to a groin injury. He gets some good news and bad news in his first game back.

The good news? His opponent tonight is the Columbus Blue Jackets, the worst team in the NHL. Columbus gives up the third most goals in the NHL, only in front of the Ottawa Senators and Carolina Hurricanes and they score the fourth least goals in the NHL. Add those two together and the Blue Jackets have the worst goal differential in the league.

Nashville Predators (18-12-4, 40 pts) @ Dallas Stars (19-13-1, 39 pts)

7:30 PM CT, December 23, 2011

American Airlines Center, Dallas, Texas

Dallas gets a chance to end their short three-game home stand on a positive note as the Nashville Predators come into town tonight. The Stars are coming off a game where they were dominated 4-1 by the Philadelphia Flyers, one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference. The Stars are currently tied for first in the Pacific Division with the Phoenix Coyotes and the San Jose Sharks and if things go right tonight, they could go into the Christmas break with sole possession of first place.

The problem with the game with the Flyers was the penalty-kill for the Stars. That could show up again tonight as the Predators are the second-best power-play team in the NHL, converting on 21.7% of their chances. Their road PP (19.7%) isn't as good as their home precentages (24.1%) but that's certainly more than dangerous enough for the Stars. They have to stay out of the penalty box tonight if they want to win this game.

The Preds are ranked 24th in the NHL in PK percentage (79.8%) , but don't let that fool you. The majority of that percentage is due to how bad they are on their home PK (72%, second worst in the NHL). On the road, they are actually one of the best teams in the league with a 85.1 PK percentage (8th best in the NHL).

Final

Dallas Stars 1 - Philadelphia Flyers 4

Stars fans can only ask why? Why did Claude Giroux have to return in this game? The young Flyer looked like he hadn't missed any time at all as he retook his NHL points lead with a four point night in the Flyers 4-1 win over the Stars. 

The Stars just didn't have an answer in this game, not only to Giroux but to the entire Flyers team. When the game originally started, it looked like Dallas would be in fight for the entire game as they scored the opening goal just 56 seconds into the game. Michael Ryder took a drop-off pass from Loui Eriksson and skated himself a short distance into the middle of the Flyers zone before firing the puck past Sergei Bobrovsky into the top corner.

The Stars continued to dominate the play until the Flyers struck back after 8 minutes as Giroux announced his return with his usual goal scoring. The Stars defenders allowed Jaromir Jagr to skate freely into the zone and he was damn near on top of Richard Bachman when he shot the puck. Bachman blocked the shot off to his right but Giroux was sitting right the and he was able to jump on the rebound and immediately get it right by Bachman.

Philadelphia Flyers (20-8-4, 44 pts) @ Dallas Stars (19-12-1, 39 pts)

6:30 PM CT, December 21, 2011

American Airlines Center, Dallas, Texas

The Stars face the other half of the Winter Classic teams tonight as the Philadelphia Flyers come into town in a matchup of division leaders. The Flyers are first place in the tough Atlantic Division, ahead of the New York Rangers and Pittsburgh Penguins while Dallas clings to its lead in the Pacific.

The Flyers have had large success against the Stars in recent years. Dating back to the 2008-2009 season, the Stars have lost 5 in a row against the Philly. Two of those games were played in Dallas. To make matters worse, the Flyers now employ astronomer and law expert Ilya Bryzgalov himself. Bryzgalov has been a thorn in the side of the Stars for years now. As a member of the Phoenix Coyotes, Bryzgalov is 13-8-2 against the Stars with a 2.27 GAA and a .924 save percentage.

Anaheim Ducks (9-18-5, 23 pts) @ Dallas Stars (18-12-1, 37 pts)

7:00 PM CT, December 19, 2011

American Airlines Center, Dallas, Texas

The Dallas Stars finally return to the friendly confines of the AAC tonight to take on the Anaheim Ducks. It's been awhile since the Stars have played here, 16 days in fact. The Stars are coming off 3-2-0 road trip that ended poorly with the 6-3 loss to the New Jersey Devils. Richard Bachman suffered the first NHL loss of his career and Dallas sustained injuries to Tomas Vincour and Philip Larsen.

Things could get back on track tonight as the Anaheim Ducks are the second worst team in NHL, only one point ahead of the Columbus Blue Jackets. The Ducks are a pretty bad team all around. They have the second worst goal differential in the league (again only one goal ahead of the Blue Jackets) and are the worst road team in the league. They fired Randy Carlyle about two weeks ago and hired Washington Capitals cast-off Bruce Boudreau in his place. The Ducks have gone 2-5-1 since that coach replacement, something that might actually be considered a smashing success.

Dallas Stars (18-11-1, 37 pts) @ New Jersey Devils (16-13-1, 33 pts)

7:00 PM CT, December 16, 2011

Prudential Center, Newark, New Jersey

The Stars' cross-country, five game road-trip comes to an end tonight as Dallas takes on the New Jersey Devils. The two teams are both running hot coming into this game with Dallas having won three in a row and the Devils winning four of their last five games.

Dallas has been riding the hot hand of Richard Bachman in their run. The rookie has been spectacular in his NHL debut week, stopping 85 of the 88 shots he's faced while going 3-0-0. He's stabilized a team that looked lost while Andrew Raycroft was in net. Tonight is the second night of a back-to-back though, so Raycroft could get the call as Bachman has started the last three games.

The Devils, meanwhile, have been rotating their goalie situation. Martin Brodeur and Johan Hedberg have been alternating starts since the beginning of December and it doesn't look like it will change. Since Brodeur started the Devils last game (a 3-2 SO win over the Florida Panthers on Dec. 13), Hedberg will be getting the start tonight. He was the starting goalie in the previous meeting this season, a 3-1 win for the Stars.

Final

Dallas Stars 3 - New York Islanders 2

Is it time to start carving our Richard Bachman statues now? Ok, that's a bit overstated but the young man was huge again, especially in the third period as the Dallas Stars hung on to beat a tough New York Islanders team 3-2. Bachman's agility and movement in net resulted in huge saves as the Isles threw everything including the kitchen at him. Dallas got goals from Loui Eriksson, Brenden Morrow and a game winner from Jamie Benn tonight.

The Stars stopped Matt Moulson tonight, but gave up goals to Michael Grabner and Kyle Okposo. Bachman had a bit of trouble with the Okposo's goal as his shot dribbled past him and Okposo followed up his own rebound to stick the puck in the net. Dallas went into the third period down 2-1 but they scored early in the third to set the tone for the end of the game. Morrow scored a power-play goal one minute in and Benn followed that up with the game winner just three minutes later. Bachman actually made a huge save just before Benn's goal.

Dallas Stars (17-11-1, 35 pts) @ New York Islanders (9-13-6, 24 pts)

6:00 PM CT, December 15, 2011

Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Uniondale, New York

Matt Moulson, Matt Moulson, Matt Moulson, Matt Moulson. That's the name that showed up four times on the scoresheet in the last game between the Dallas Stars and the New York Islanders. The Andrew Raycroft show was put to screeching halt as he gave up rebound after rebound in the team's 5-4 loss to the Isles. In retrospect, all Stars fans might want to send a thank-you note over to Moulson as it was largely his doing that Raycroft was pulled in the third in favor of Richard Bachman.

It will be Bachman's task tonight to put a stop to the Moulson train. Bachman has been incredible in the two games that he has started, stopping 59 of 60 shots and earning the Stars first shutout of the year in their 1-0 win over the New York Rangers. After what he's done in his last two games, tonight should be no problem at all right?

Final

Dallas Stars 1 - New York Rangers 0

At this point, all Stars fans must be thinking why it took so long for Richard Bachman to get a shot to play in the NHL. Bachman was absolutely incredible last night, stopping all 34 shots that he faced in a 1-0 win over the New York Rangers, one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference. The kid looked like Kari Lehtonen did earlier this season, staring down a gun barrel of unrelenting shots and swatting them all aside.

Trevor Daley scored the game winner with five minutes left in game off, get this, a Jeff Woywitka turnover (boy do Stars fans ever know how that feels). It was nice being on the other side of one of those for change and it undoubtedly was an endless resource of comedy for Stars fans.

Woywitka had the puck in his own zone and for an unknown reason shot the puck off the wall to a spot where three Stars were waiting at center ice while the rest of team was making a change. That lead to the Stars going into the Rangers zone with a 4-on-3 advantage. Slick passing from Morrow to Daley to Ribeiro back to a waiting Daley ended up in a goal as Daley went five-hole on Henrik Lundqvist, who had also been solid in goal (but not as good as Bachman).

Dallas Stars (16-11-1, 33 pts) @ New York Rangers (17-6-4, 38 pts)

6:00 PM CT, December 13, 2011

Madison Square Garden, New York, New York

Richard Bachman got his first win in the NHL in his first start in the Stars 2-1 win over the LA Kings. Tonight, he faces a much stiffer test as the Stars hit the East Coast for three games in the New York/ New Jersey area. Their opponent tonight? The New York Rangers, the team that Brad Richards went to in the offseason and a team that could be sitting in first place in the Eastern Conference if they win the game tonight.

The big story in the media tonight will be about Richards, who spent the last four seasons with the Stars before moving to greener pastures this year. Richards has been solid, but not his usual top of the NHL self. When's the last time you've seen Richards play every game three months into the season and not sit in the top 10 in any of the offensive rankings (goals, assists and points)? The Rangers have been successful this season because of the guys around Richards, so Dallas can't be too preoccupied with stopping him.