What is the story about?
Just the facts
- When: Tonight, 8 PM
- Where: American Airlines Center
- How to follow: ESPN, 98.5 The Sports Hub
- Opposing perspective: Defending Big D
Know your enemy
- 4-3-1, 9PTS, 5th in the Central Division
- Mikko Rantanen: 2G-6A-8PTS; Jason Robertson: 3G-4A-7PTS; Miro Heiskanen: 3G-3A-6PTs
- Jake Oettinger: 3-2-1, 1.00 GAA, .952 save percentage
Game notes
- After a successful swing through California, the B’s will face their toughest opponent of their four-game road trip tonight in Dallas, matching up against a Stars team that expects to make some noise come springtime.
- The Stars aren’t off to a flying start overall, but they’ve won two games in a row, including a shootout win over the Colorado Avalanche last Wednesday. While their record seems middling at 4-3-1, two of those three regulation losses were in one-goal games, so it’s not like they’re a mess.
- Raise your hand if you thought Mason Lohrei would be just one goal off of Jason Roberston’s pace nine games into the season.
- Put your hand down.
- Ol’ pal Tyler Seguin is back in action for Dallas after missing much of last season with a torn ACL. The former Bruin is off to a great start with 2G-2A-4PTS in 8GP, especially when you consider he suffered that ACL injury less than 11 months ago.
- While you might look at Jake Oettinger’s 3-1-1 record and think it’s decent enough, it’s worth looking a little deeper as well: the former Boston University Terrier has three shutouts already this season and allowed just one goal in a shootout loss to Pittsburgh. His “worst” game, if you can call it that, was allowing three goals to the Colorado Avalanche, which…yeah, they’re a powerhouse.
- Seeking a little more depth up front, the Stars signed David Perron last week. The former Blue, Red Wing, etc. is expected to make his Dallas debut tonight.
- Pavel Zacha was a full participant in practice for the B’s on Monday. Officially, he remains a game-time decision for this one.
- While much attention was paid to Nikita Zadorov’s spot in practice, Marco Sturm says his pairings and lines in practice may not mean all that much come game time.
- This was a stat that surprised me, given Dallas’ offensive firepower, but the Bruins are actually better than the Stars on the man advantage this season. The B’s now (somehow) have the league’s 9th-best power play, while Dallas sits at 24th. However, the Stars have the best PK in the league.
- As a reminder, this game is airing on ESPN as a national broadcast — someone can correct me in the comments, but I believe that goes for the Boston area too. NESN’s broadcast guide doesn’t have this game on the docket for tomorrow.
See
ya tonight!
