NHL: Familiar Foes Face Off As Canucks Host Stars

Sometimes it’s tough to know what the NHL schedule-makers are thinking. After the two teams had not seen each other all season, the people who plan these things decided the Dallas Stars and Vancouver Canucks must play each other four times within the final seven weeks.

This is the final meeting of the regular season between the two teams, and they are in similar situations since the last time they clashed. The Canucks are the Northwest Division champions and guaranteed one of the top two playoff seeds in the Western Conference. Meanwhile, the Stars are once again on top of the Pacific Division.

In the past week, however, the Phoenix Coyotes and the Los Angeles Kings have also been at the peak of the division (and the third post-season position which comes with it). As of this writing, Dallas and Phoenix have 89 points (with the Stars holding a game in hand), while the Kings and the San Jose Sharks have 88 points (while San Jose has played one more game).

Even the Colorado Avalanche, with 86 points in 79 games, and the Calgary Flames (85 points in 78 games), still have their chance to lap them all and grab a post-season berth. Each of them is almost equally capable of going through in this volatile situation, and it appears the matter will have to be decided next week. So as you can see, the race for the playoffs is far from over in the West.

That’s why the Stars need to bring their best effort to their tilt in Vancouver. This is a game they can win: they’ve beaten the Canucks in two of the previous three matches, but last week it was Vancouver who came away with the 2-1 victory in Dallas’s home rink. It will be a tall order for the visitors: both of the Canucks’ goatenders, Roberto Luongo — expected to get the start in this game — and Cory Schneider have stayed hot; each of them have had shutouts this week.

As Frank Doyle noted in his story, Canucks defenseman Keith Ballard has returned to the ice while forward Daniel Sedin remains out: both have concussions in common. The club has said their top goal-scorer should be ready for the playoffs, but they’ll have to make do without him for now.

The NHL betting line is expecting the Canucks to be victorious this time, but it’s likely to be as close-scoring as most of their other matchups have been. The Stars will need to have Michael Ryder staying confident if they are to solve their three-season playoff drought.