Stars at Blues Preview: Dallas trying to keep pace in the crowded Central Division

The Blues almost stopped the Pittsburgh Penguins’ league-high win streak at eight games, and if their game on Wednesday night would’ve ended after the second period, they would have. Unfortunately, games last a full sixty minutes, and the Blues were another notch on the Pens’ belt.

Luckily, the Blues treated that as a learning experience and absolutely steamrolled the Washington Capitals 5-1 on Friday night. Anchored by another impressive performance from Ville Husso, who is coming into his own this season, the team rode a two goal, one assist performance by Pavel Buchnevich to a victory.

Most impressively, the Blues didn’t allow a single point from Alexander Ovechkin to appear on the scoresheet. Home cooking for the Blues is a powerful dish. They’ve won ten of their last eleven games played at Enterprise Center, a huge reason that they’ve continued to compete in the Central. Currently, they’re in second place behind the Nashville Predators, with the Colorado Avalanche - who have played four fewer games than the Blues - coming up right behind.

The Dallas Stars are on a four game win streak right now, and should be frustrated by it. Much like the Penguins, whose streak they snapped yesterday after ten games, the Stars have been playing fantastic hockey and don’t have much to show for it. They’re in sixth in the Central, still, and their accomplishment is that they’ve put extra space between themselves and the Blackhawks and Coyotes. Much like the Avalanche, they’ve only played 31 games, so they can still shoot past the Jets and Wild.

The Stars don’t have a solid road record, and that four game streak has come at home. Their last road game was against the Blues, a 4-1 loss on December 17th.

None of the players on the Covid-19 protocol list are eligible for return today, so between that and the quality of play on Friday night, don’t expect any major changes before today’s 1:00 puck drop aside for who’s in net.