The last time the Flames beat the Stars in Dallas, Roman Turek was the starting goalie. Yup, it's been THAT long. With that in mind, tonight probably represents Calgary's best opportunity to put that ugly losing streak to bed...
Mainly due to the fact the Stars are the walking wounded. Dallas is currently plugging along without the services of Mike Modano (10 goals, 20 points), Brendan Morrow (10 goals, 20 points), Steve Ott (4 points), Matthew Barnaby (127 PIM), Sergei Zubov (7 goals, 30 points) and Philippe Boucher (13 goals, 33 points). That's a captain, an assistant captain, two top-2 defenseman, 2 world class aggitators and 4 of their top 10 point producers in sick-bay. Ouch. In addition, defensive specialist Jeff Halpern is out with the proverbial "lower body injury", leaving the Dallas roster looking something like swiss-cheese.
To compound the problem, Dallas is hardly an offensive dynamo, injuries aside. Both Morrow and Modano had only managed 20 points in 28 and 27 games respectively before being hobbled. The Stars don't have a single player with more than 13 goals so far this year and their highest scoring forward is Jere Lehtinen with 12. They are currently ranked 24th in the league in terms of GF and have the 2nd lowest goal total at ES (64) in the league. While they are 3rd best in the NHL in terms of GA at ES (61), the resultant ES goal differential is hardly elite (3). The Flames, in comparison, have an ES goal differential of 32.
Can you say "ripe for the picking"? Dallas is missing a ton of quality minutes on the back-end, most of their leadership and nearly half of their top goal getters. They can't score at the best of times and have won only 1 of their last 4 games. And that victory came against the woeful LA Kings.
If Calgary can keep themselves out of the penalty box tonight, they should win handily. Course, should the night turn into a special teams battle, Calgary will most likely be left lamenting yet another road loss.
As it stands, I can't see the Flames throwing away what I consider to be the most winnable contest on this roadtrip. Calgary 4, Dallas 2. Langkow, Lombardi, Hamrlik and Huselius with the goals. Brett Hull scores two from just inside the crease for Dallas.
Go Flames!
