Anaheim Ducks – (2-0-0, 4 pts, 6th in the West)

The Ducks are off to a pretty good start this season. They’ve played two games so far, both on the road and won against Vancouver and Calgary. Their defense has been really shaky out of the gate but their offense has been stellar as they’ve won their two games by a 12-7 margin.

The usual suspects (Selanne, Getzlaf, Perry, Koivu) have been doing most of the heavy work for them so far but there’s been one surprise to the season. That surprise is Daniel Winnik, the team leader in goals with 4. Winnik is shooting a ridiculous 66.7% so far on the season (four goals on six shots) so there’s no way he can keep this up.

Former Star Sheldon Souray has also started out the season well with a goal and two assists to lead the defense.

The Week Ahead:

Fri. Jan. 25 – Vancouver @ Anaheim

Sat. Jan. 26 – Nashville @ Anaheim

Tues. Jan. 29 – Anaheim @ San Jose

Final - Overtime

Dallas Stars 2 – Chicago Blackhawks 3

Dallas was both unlucky and very fortunate to get at least a point in this game. Chicago dominated possession of the puck and put enormous pressure on Kari Lehtonen the entire game. The Stars couldn’t stay out of the penalty box and that, in the end, was the difference in the game as the Hawks scored three power play goals.

All of that was pretty much secondary though to the in game news that Jamie Benn had re-signed with the Stars for five years/$26.25 million. 

The Positives:

• Kari Lehtonen was once again the huge positive in this game. He faced 41 shots, many of them point blank, and was able to stop 38 of them. The first goal that he allowed was actually an own goal off of Trevor Daley. He may have allowed two true goals to the Blackhawks, but Kari should take no blame for this game.

• Cody Eakin continues to impress during his time with the second line. He forced a key turnover in the second period and fed the pass to a wide open Ray Whitney in the slot for the Stars’ second goal. He’s done wonders for the second line these past two games so it’ll be interesting to see where he plays once Jamie Benn comes back.

• This should probably go without saying, but Loui Eriksson was excellent this game. While he did score a shorthanded goal, it was his overall defense in the game that impressed the most. He continuously worked back to help win the puck and provide cover for a bewildered defense.

• It wasn’t on-ice news, but the best thing about yesterday’s game was the Jamie Benn re-signing. Unfortunately he won’t be able to play in the Stars’ next game as he has work visa issues, but he’ll be back on Monday. Dallas will finally have their true top-six on the ice.

Chicago Blackhawks (3-0-0, 6 pts) @ Dallas Stars (2-1-0, 4 pts)

7:30 PM CT

American Airlines Center, Dallas, Texas

The Blackhawks

Chicago comes into this game as one of the top offensive teams in the league (though it’s just three games) with an average of 4.7 goals per game.

That hot start can mostly be attributed to the play of Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews and Marian Hossa. Hossa is currently tied for the league lead in goals and both he and Kane are tied for second in the league in points. A lot of the burden of stopping them will come down to Kari Lehtonen, but the Dallas defenders need to at least slow down the trio.

The Blackhawks goaltending is suspect as always so the more pressure the Stars can put on Corey Crawford, the better.

The Hawks are pretty healthy. Dan Carcillo (knee) and Steve Montador (concussion) are the only two players expected to be out with injuries. Youngster Brandon Saad looks to be Carcillo’s replacement on the second line.

Possible line combos:

Sharp – Toews – Kane

Saad – Bolland – Hossa

Stalberg – Shaw – Frolik

Bickell – Kruger – Mayers

D-Pairings:

Keith – Seabrook

Leddy – Hjalmarsson

Oduya – Rozsival

Dallas Stars (1-1-0, 2pts) @ Detroit Red Wings (1-1-0, 2 pts)

6:30 PM CT

Joe Louis Arena, Detroit, Michigan

Those Hated Red Wings

Detroit enters this season as vulnerable as they’ve ever been in the past three decades. Nicklas Lidstrom retired during the offseason and took with him a lot of the usual Red Wing aura.

The loss of Lidstrom and Brad Stuart on the defense is a killer. A healthy defense on this team is as bad (maybe even worse) as the Stars now. To make matters worse, it isn’t healthy. The Wings blue line will be without three players in tonight’s game due to injury: Jonathan Ericsson, Jakub Kindl and Carlo Colaiacovo. I’m pretty sure a mild breeze would be enough to injure Colaiacovo.

Detroit has resorted to signing guys off the scrap heap and picked up veteran Kent Huskins just to be a healthy body. Some dude named Gustav Nyquist was also just called up to bolster the forward depth. Based on their roster outlook, it seems both will be getting some playing time today.

Now as bad as their defense is, the offense on the Wings can still score. Pavel Datsyuk is around and still as Datsyukian as ever. Henrik Zetterberg is the team’s shiny new captain and a Stars killer. Rookie Damien Brunner is a highly touted prospect and played overseas with Zetterberg during the lockout so they have good chemistry together.

Detroit did play a game last night that went into a shootout against the Blue Jackets so the team could be a bit tired.

I assume Jimmy Howard will start tonight as their backup is the just-called-up Thomas McCollum.

The team will be without the defensemen mentioned above as well as forwards Mikael Samuelsson, Darren Helm, Todd Bertuzzi, Jan Mursak and backup goalies Jonas Gustavsson and Joey MacDonald.

Possible line combos:

Zetterberg – Datsyuk – Brunner

Cleary – Filppula – Franzen

Tootoo – Abdelkader - Nyquist

Miller – Emmerton – Eaves

D-Pairings:

Kronwall – White

Quincey – Smith

Huskins – Lashoff

Dallas:

Game three and still no sign of Jamie Benn yet for Dallas. Jagr and crew should have an easier time tonight scoring on Detroit that they did against the block-happy Wild.

It’s the second line on this team that really needs to get going though. The center (whether it’s Tom Wandell or Cody Eakin) needs to provide some service to Ray Whitney and Michael Ryder just so they can provide some support for the first line. I really hope that it’s Eakin that rolls out the second line though.

Kari Lehtonen will be back between the pipes tonight and will be looking for his second win of the season. He’s 3-5-0 against the Wings in his career with a 3.40 GAA and a .906 SV%.

Aaron Rome still has the iffy groin and shouldn’t be back in the lineup tonight. The defensive pairings should be the same that they’ve been for the past two games.

Probable lines:

Eriksson – Roy – Jagr

Whitney – Wandell – Ryder

Morrow – Fiddler – Nystrom

Garbutt – Eakin – Smith

D-Pairs:

Goligoski – Robidas

Benn – Daley

Larsen – Dillon

Texas Stars

The Texas Stars entered the week without a majority of their key players as they were with the Dallas Stars. The gutted roster didn’t really miss a beat though as they won two of their three games last week and showed a season high outburst of offense in their final two games.

The Stars dropped their first game of the week 4-1 but bounced back with a vengeance as they won their next two games by a combined 14-8 margin. The defense was a bit shaky as the team was without Brenden Dillon, Jordie Benn and goalie Cristopher Nilstorp, but the offense was there to pick up the team.

Nearly every forward on the team had a goal during the week (including Austin Smith’s first of his AHL career) and the standout was Alex Chiasson, who had three goals and two assists during the week.

Jack Campbell started two of the three games last week and went 1-1-0 while stopping 52 of 59 shots. Richard Bachman got the last start of the week (his first action in a long time) and stopped 30 of 34 for the win.

The Stars finish up their long six-game road trip this week and currently sit fourth in the Western Conference (second in the division).

Jan. 21 – Texas Stars @ Rockford IceHogs

Jan. 25 – Texas Stars @ San Antonio Rampage

Jan. 26 – San Antonio Rampage @ Texas Stars

Final

Dallas Stars 0 - Minnesota Wild 1

Both teams came into this game off of big offensive nights and were each starting backup goaltenders so the prevailing thought was that a high scoring affair would happen. Unfortunately, Minnesota Wild-style of hockey took over and the game bogged down after the Wild took a 1-0 lead early in the first period.

There were very few things of note in this game.

The Positives:

• The biggest positive in this game (and probably only one) was the play of Cristopher Nilstorp. In his NHL debut, the youngster stopped 31 of 32 shots and was the only reason why Dallas was even close in this game. The one goal he allowed was when the Wild had a four-on-three power play and Stephane Robidas had a broken stick. The WIld cycled the puck around on what was basically a four-on-two and Zach Parise was able to zing it past Nilstorp. Nilstorp looks like a solid keeper though.

• Derek Roy was solid again on face-offs, winning 17 of 25. He was the only player on the team to take double digit face-offs and he didn't disappoint. The team lost the overall face-off total but he was great. It looks like he'll be taking all of the important one from here on out.

• The fourth line for Dallas was good again. They provided an energy that was lacking from the team and really hounded the Wild in the offensive zone.

• Not really a positive for Dallas but good for Josh Harding getting the win tonight. It's his first game since being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and it's just nice to see him able to play.

Dallas Stars (1-0-0, 2pts) @ Minnesota Wild (1-0-0, 2 pts)

7:00 PM CT

Xcel Energy Center, Saint Paul, Minnesota

(Delving) Into the Wild:

Minnesota made the biggest splash in free agency last summer (and was probably a huge reason why the lockout had to happen) with their gigantic signings of Ryan Suter and Zach Parise.

Parise paid off immediately last night as he had two assists to help the Wild beat the Colorado Avalanche 4-2 while Suter provided some good defense (but not much offensively).

The Wild’s top line of Parise-Mikko Koivu-Dany Heatley should be one of the most dangerous in the league and the Stars have to be extremely careful of them tonight. Considering what happened to Dallas’ defense last night, whoever starts in goalie tonight will be very busy.

Past that top line, Mikael Granlund is one of the more heralded rookies this season and he also had a goal in his NHL debut against Colorado.

It looks like the Wild will be starting backup goalie Josh Harding in tonight’s game.

They have one injury of note. Defenseman Marco Scandella is out with a groin injury.

Possible line combos:

Parise-Koivu-Heatley

Setoguchi-Cullen-Granlund

Clutterbuck-Brodziak-Bouchard

Powe-Konopka-Mitchell

D-Pairings:

Suter–Spurgeon

Gilbert-Stoner

Falk-Prosser

Final

Dallas Stars 4 – Phoenix Coyotes 3

The Stars started their brand new season with a fantastic win over the Phoenix Coyotes. Jaromir Jagr carried the team on his (old) back with two goals and two assists and the other new guys played great as well. It looks like Jagr already has fine chemistry with Loui Eriksson and Derek Roy and that line was incredible throughout the game.

The Positives:

• Obviously Jagr was the biggest plus in this game. He was all over the ice and it wasn’t just his points that were huge for the team. He drew the defense towards him wherever he went and cleared space for the other forwards. Ray Whitney and Loui Eriksson were able to score goals as a result of this and great vision from Jagr.

• Most of the new guys on the team played excellent today. Whitney had a goal and an assist and Roy managed an assist as well. Roy was also an excellent 16 of 23 on face-offs to really help the Stars. Vernon Fiddler was also good in the face-off dot, winning 11 of 15.

• The fourth line for Dallas was just a bundle of energy on the ice. Reilly Smith, Ryan Garbutt and Cody Eakin wrecked havoc on the ice and showed great pressure on the puck. Smith got time on both special teams units as well before leaving the game after he took a shot to the face.

• Kari Lehtonen was very good despite allowing three goals. He was under fire the entire night due to the shaky defense and faced 40 shots. He made big saves in the third period and really had no chance on two of the three goals that he allowed.

• The power play was pretty much amazing for Dallas. Whitney and Jagr brought the Stars dead power play to life and they looked dangerous on it all night and scored two goals as a result. If it looks like that every night, this team will is in good hands.

• Brenden Dillon was pretty much the only defenseman that was solid throughout the night. He led the team in hits, had a couple of shots and played solid defense. He needs to take over Jordie Benn’s spot.

• The place was sold-out in this game which was great for the team. The product on-ice was also great so hopefully the fans return.

Phoenix Coyotes @ Dallas Stars

7:00 PM CT

American Airlines Center, Dallas, Texas

Phoenix (low)down:

The Coyotes are coming off their franchise’s best season ever. They won the Pacific Division for the first time in their history and made it all the way to the Conference finals where they lost to the eventual Stanley Cup Champion LA Kings.

They had a relatively quiet offseason with more players leaving (most notably Ray Whitney) than coming in. Their most significant additions this season are Steve Sullivan, Zbynek Michalek and the just-traded-for Matthew Lombardi. Sullivan should be the top line winger and Lombardi could eventually be the top line center. Michalek is a top-four defenseman for the team and will split time between the first and second pairings.

Other than those guys, it’ll be more of the same from Phoenix. They’ll rely heavily on Mike Smith in goal and their strong defense led by Keith Yandle and up-and-coming star Oliver Ekman-Larsson. Shane Doan is still around (no Jamie Benn to elbow this time around though) and still extremely hated and punchable.

Raffi Torres is suspended due to his rocket-skated head shot of Marian Hossa in last year’s playoffs.

Possible line combos:

Sullivan-Hanzal-Doan

Boedker-Vermette-Vrbata

Korpikoski-Lombardi-Moss

Bissonnette-Gordon-Chipchura

D-Pairings:

Ekman-Larsson – Michalek

Yandle-Morris

Klesla-Schlemko

Dallas:

There’s a lot of storylines buzzing around this Stars team but the biggest storyline for Dallas is obviously the Jamie Benn situation. It looks like he won’t be signed until the middle of next week so that means Tom Wandell gets another shot to show some kind of offensive capability for the team (though I’m hoping Cody Eakin gets some time there as well) and Derek Roy gets top billing on the first line.

Moving on from that though, there’s a lot to be excited about from this offense as fans get to see Jaromir Jagr, Ray Whitney, Roy and a few of the young kids for the first time in a Stars jersey.

Whitney will have something to prove against his former team so hopefully he comes out and dominates.  It’ll be fascinating to watch what happens when the Stars get a power play.

Kari Lehtonen obviously gets the nod and hopefully he’s not too rusty with the extended layoff.

The Stars won three of these matchups last season, but they were all in a shootout so expect another close game tonight.

On the injury front, Aaron Rome has a groin injury and is questionable. His loss would just be another big blow to an already shaky defensive corps. Brenden Morrow gave everyone a scare yesterday when he went down during practice but he’s alright with just a cut on his face. Antoine Roussel isn’t injured but he was sent back down to the AHL to give the Texas Stars another healthy body to play.

Probable lines:

Eriksson-Roy-Jagr

Whitney-Wandell-Ryder

Morrow-Fiddler-Nystrom

Garbutt-Eakin-Smith

D-Pairs:

Goligoski-Robidas

Rome(if healthy, Jordie Benn if not)-Daley

Dillon-Larsen

1) Can the team find their chemistry quickly enough with the shortened season?

There’s a lot of roster turnover on the team and the lack of a real training camp really hurts, but I’m going to say yes. Jaromir Jagr and Ray Whitney have been around long enough that they should be able to pick up the system quickly. Jagr’s been sort of a mercenary for the past decade so he’s more than used to change.

The youngsters on the team are AHL buddies so they should be fine on the depth lines and the defense only has one real change.

The biggest question mark will be Derek Roy. He was off ice for a while before training camp due to surgery and has to find a way to click with his teammates. The lack of Jamie Benn in the shortened training camp puts some more uncertainty for him (at least for a short while) as the wings keep fluctuating around him. With his down season last year and the fact that he’s playing for a contract, there’s a lot of motivation for him this year. If he can get into the swing of things within the first few weeks of the season, it’ll be a huge boost for the Stars.

2) Can the power-play even look slightly capable this year?  

The biggest reason for the Jagr and Whitney signings was for this part of the team. With the addition of players that actually look like they belong on the power-play, there’s no way this team can be worse than last season right? Alex Goligoski should be more comfortable as much of the pressure is off of him and the snipers should have more chances to snipe. Honestly, if this team can just have around the 20th best power play in the NHL, it’ll be a success.

3) Who needs to really up their game this season?

The main (and really only) target here is the aforementioned Goligoski. The trade with Pittsburgh has looked progressively worse by the year and there’s even more pressure on him this season now that he has a shiny new contract. He showed a short flash of how important he could be last season in February but he trailed off quickly at the end of the season.

His future is locked in with this team so he needs to show some prolonged consistency in his play and provide some scoring from the point. If he can’t do that, the flood of tears from Stars fans every time they see James Neal will just increase.