Too much Stars! I have had enough of the Dallas Stars already. I have had enough of their hideous green sweaters. And I love the color green!
They're a perfectly mediocre team: without point inflation, they have a .500 record. With or without point inflation, they're 1-1-1 against the Hawks this year. Their goal differential is just a hair over break-even and ranks 15th out of 30. It's just a big slice of hockey meatloaf here, and sometimes those teams are the most frustrating. Nonetheless, I'm really worried about putting tiny little Raanta in there against that Benn-Seguin-Nichushkin line. It's a one-line wonder team for sure, but I can just picture them giving Raanta all sorts of trouble. I'm also a bit apprehensive about going in a bit shorthanded against Lehtonen, who has made it his mission to shut down the Hawks and then do shit else the rest of the season as he misses the playoffs over and over. Now Trevor Daley is out for the Stars, too. I'm not sure what Daley has ever done for the Stars except just hang out there for a long time, but this Jamie Oleksiak guy who's up to replace him looks pretty scary. Vern Fiddler is out, too, which is good. He's a pain in the ass.
Sounds like Crawford is out till New Year's, which is a lucky break after Foley was talking about how Stan needs to work the phones immediately. Geez, dude, don't scare me like that. Nothing will scare me so much as having to see Kent Simpson in net, though.
My advice for this game is to draw penalties.
Hawks: 21-6-5 (47), 17-8-7 adjusted (41), 40.982 expected (damn) Stars: 14-9-5 (33), 11-11-6 adjusted (28), 28.394 expected (also right there)
Hawks: 3.500 scored (1st), 2.688 allowed (17th), .813 differential (3rd) Stars: 2.786 scored (10th), 2.750 allowed (21st), .036 differential (15th)
Hawks: 24/104 23.1% on the power play (4th), 66/90 73.3% on the kill (29th) Stars: 11/97 11.3% on the power play (23rd), 75/92 81.5% on the kill (19th)
7:30 start in Dallas, a dying breed as more venues, Chicago included, want to get families home at a decent hour.
_________________ Molly Lambert wrote: The future holds the possibility to be great or terrible, and since it has not yet occurred it remains simultaneously both.
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