The Stars are in town this evening to take on the Detroit Red Wings

Jim Nill’s Dallas Stars are in town tonight and are prepared to take on the Detroit Red Wings at Little Ceasers Arena.

The Dallas Stars unexpectedly struggled to start the season. They’ve started to play much better over the last two games. That doesn’t paint a great picture for us Detroit Red Wings fans. The Dallas Stars like many Western Conference teams are built to be physical. Led by captain Jamie Benn, the Stars are always hungry on the forecheck and love to throw the body around.

The Western Conference is much more physical than the East. The teams have been built to be physical and compete with one another. It seems to have started in California and trickled throughout the rest of the conference. The Kings had that big 70’s line along with Dustin Brown who loves to cause havoc. The Ducks have always played with a bit of nasty led by Ryan Getzlaf and the rest of the Conference have seemed to follow suit.

The Jets, who we just saw Friday night play big and the Stars tonight are no different. The Stars bottom six forwards will look to engage physically and then Tyler Seguin, Jason Spezza and Jamie Benn will lead the finesse game for the Stars.

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Seguin leads the Stars with 11 points this season, recording 3 goals. Radulov who will not play today, has 4 goals and 6 helpers. Look for John Klingberg to stand out tonight on the Stars backend. He is a defender that lays in the weeds of the league. He is someone who doesn’t receive nearly enough exposure. Klingberg is an offensive defenceman who will be up for the James Norris Trophy at the conclusion of the season.

The Detroit Red Wings have struggled to score goals this season again. It is a broken record. They have only totaled 21 goals through the first 10 games of the season. After Dylan Larkin and Andreas Athanasiou, the offensive threats really decline so far this season. The Detroit Red Wings are 5-4-1 over the last 10 games against the Stars.

Jimmy Howard was simply sensational Friday evening at home against Winnipeg. He allowed just two goals on 40 shots, and one goal was recorded with a man advantage. The Wings were peppered in the second period being outshot 21-1 at one time. If the Detroit Red Wings have a chance to win this game they will need an encore performance out of Bernier today.

The Detroit Red Wings projected lineup;

Anthony Mantha- Dylan Larkin (A) – Darren Helm

Andreas Athanasiou – Frans Nielsen (A) – Thomas Vanek

Tyler Bertuzzi – Luke Glendening -Gustav Nyquist

Justin Abdelkader (A) – Jacob de La Rose -Michael Rasmussen

Dennis Cholowski – Mike Green

Niklas Kronwall (A) – Nick Jensen

Trevor Daley – Jonathan Ericsson

Jonathan Bernier

Jimmy Howard

Injuries; Danny DeKeyser (hand), Evgeny Svechnikov (knee)

Healthy Scratches; Martin Frk, Luke Witkowski, Joe Hicketts