Stars at Avalanche
The Dallas Stars' dynamic duo of captain Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin look to rev up their offensive game when the team visits the Central Division-rival Colorado Avalanche on Saturday. Benn and Seguin respectively finished first and second on the club in scoring, combining for 74 goals and 88 assists while the former ranked second in the league with 89 points.
Seguin, who has scored at least 33 goals in each of his previous three campaigns with Dallas but missed the preseason with a fractured heel, was kept off the scoresheet in Thursday's season-opening 4-2 victory over Anaheim while Benn was limited to one assist. The Avalanche hope to follow the Stars' lead and emerge victorious in their first contest of 2016-17. Colorado is ushering in a new era as former minor-league journeyman defenseman Jared Bednar takes over the coaching duties from Patrick Roy, who resigned from the position - as well as his status as the team's vice president of hockey operations - in August for what he described as a lack of input in personnel decisions. Bednar guided Columbus' American Hockey League affiliate - the Lake Erie Monsters - to the Calder Cup championship last season.
TV: 9 p.m. ET, FSN Southwest (Dallas), Altitude (Colorado)
ABOUT THE STARS (1-0-0): Antoine Roussel and Adam Cracknell were the offensive heroes against the Ducks, recording a goal and an assist apiece in the third period. Cracknell, who split last season between Vancouver and Edmonton, entered the season with 11 goals in 134 career games. Kari Lehtonen could make his season debut on Saturday as the Stars remained status quo in net and plan on rotating him with Antti Niemi.
ABOUT THE AVALANCHE (2015-16: 39-39-4, 6th in Central): Colorado will have plenty of new faces in the lineup as it added defensemen Fedor Tyutin and Patrick Wiercioch as well as forwards Ben Smith, Joe Colborne, Rene Bourque and Gabriel Bourque - the latter two earning contracts after attending training camp on tryouts. Rene Bourque is a veteran of 660 NHL games and is two points shy of 300 for his career. Defenseman Francois Beauchemin and forwards Matt Duchene and Nathan MacKinnon were named as the team's alternate captains by Bednar, with the latter two rotating the duty throughout the season.
OVERTIME
1. Avalanche C John Mitchell (hip) is expected to miss the opener while RW Mikko Rantanen (ankle) is likely to be assigned to the AHL after missing most of training camp and the preseason.
2. Dallas was 5-for-5 on the penalty kill against Anaheim but went 0-for-4 on the power play and allowed a short-handed goal.
3. Colorado has not played since last Saturday, when it completed a 6-0-0 preseason with an overtime win over Los Angeles.