Canadiens at Stars
The Dallas Stars may soon be in the market for some goaltending - or possibly a bricklayer. The Stars will try to keep the puck out of the net Saturday night as they carry a four-game losing skid into their home encounter with the Montreal Canadiens. Dallas has the worst goal prevention in the league heading into the encounter - allowing a whopping 3.6 per game - and has been particularly terrible during its skid, surrendering five goals in each contest.
If the Stars are looking for any sort of relief, they may just get it with the arrival of the slumping Canadiens. Montreal has dropped five of six - and Friday's loss was particularly gut-wrenching, as Brandon Saad scored with 27 seconds remaining to give the Chicago Blackhawks a come-from-behind 4-3 win. Saturday marks the end of a stretch that has seen Montreal play six of seven games on the road; it is just 2-4-1 in that span after posting a 16-5-1 mark.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, TVA (Montreal), CITY, FS-SW (Dallas)
ABOUT THE CANADIENS (17-9-2): Give Montreal credit for at least trying to generate more offense - the club has outshot its opponents in four of the last five games, though it has just one win to show for it. Friday's defeat saw the Canadiens fire 41 shots at Blackhawks netminder Antti Raanta - Montreal's second 40-shot effort in less than a week, after it peppered Buffalo's Jhonas Enroth with 44 in a 4-3 shootout loss last week. Scoring first might help - the Canadiens have done it just nine times all season, and have won all nine of those games.
ABOUT THE STARS (9-12-5): Dallas coach Lindy Ruff is scrambling for a fix as his team continues to hemorrhage goals at an alarming rate. The Stars are as dangerous as ever on offense, but Ruff says the defensive effort simply isn't there - and hasn't been for most of the season. "Every day you're fixing something," he told reporters earlier this week. "We spent a lot of time talking about a five-man defensive structure. We can't have four, we can't have three, and in some situations (we've) only had three. We need five."
OVERTIME
1. Montreal has won back-to-back meetings, including a 6-2 triumph in the last encounter Jan. 2.
2. The Canadiens have won six of their last seven Saturday games.
3. Montreal F Lars Eller is day-to-day after leaving Friday's game in the second period with an upper-body injury.