Predators at Stars
The Dallas Stars have dropped off the pace in the race for Central Division supremacy and may have to start looking over their shoulder due to their longest losing streak in more than three months. One of the teams chasing the Stars is the Nashville Predators, who will look to complete a home-and-home sweep when the teams collide in Dallas on Saturday afternoon.
The Stars kick off a four-game homestand Saturday and coach Rick Bowness is expecting a better effort from his team than in Thursday's 2-0 loss at Nashville. "We haven't done anything yet. We don't have a (playoff) spot," Bowness said after his team dropped to 0-2-2 in the last four. "I expect our desperation level to pick up a whole lot by Saturday afternoon." The Predators were among five teams separated by one point in the battle for the two wild cards entering Friday's play and are hoping to build upon Thursday's victory in the opener of a five-game road trip. "It might have been the best poise and puck movement we've had all season," forward Matt Duchene said. "We looked dangerous tonight and we haven't looked (dangerous) very much this season."
TIME: 2 p.m. ET. TV: FS Southwest, FS Tennessee
ABOUT THE PREDATORS (33-26-8): Filip Forsberg finally put an end to a nightmarish goal drought, ending a 17-game dry spell with his first tally since Jan. 30 to take over the team lead with 19. Forsberg, who has netted at least 26 goals in each of the past five seasons and moved into third place on the franchise's all-time list with 164, has nine goals and as many assists in 26 meetings against Dallas. Juuse Saros, who has supplanted Pekka Rinne as the No. 1 netminder, improved to 5-0-1 against Dallas following Thursday's shutout.
ABOUT THE STARS (37-22-8): Dallas has managed to score only seven goals during the four-game slide but a bigger problem is a struggling penalty kill that had been among the league's best before unraveling over the past five weeks. The Stars surrendered a pair of power-play tallies in Thursday's loss and rank next-to-last on the penalty kill since Feb. 1 with a success rate of 68.8 percent. “When we’re not going well, it seems like teams are just finding seams, they’re finding too many openings on us," forward Jason Dickinson said.
OVERTIME
1. Predators captain Roman Josi has two goals and four assists during a five-game point streak.
2. Stars G Ben Bishop, who has been dealing with a lower-body injury, is expected back in net Saturday.
3. Duchene, who ended a nine-game goal drought Thursday, has two tallies and three points in three meetings versus Dallas this season.