What to watch for as Stars return home to take on Panthers

The Dallas Stars hope to keep the good times train rolling into the All-Star break this weekend with home dates tonight against Florida and Thursday against slumping Toronto.
Here's what to watch for in the second and final contest between the Stars and Panthers this season.

Buy in and keep buying in

The best line of the morning might have been head coach Ken Hitchcock saying, more or less, that looking behind in the Western Conference standings scares the (stuffing) out him, so the key is to look forward.
That means not worrying that Colorado, winners of 10 straight, are a point back of Dallas, the current owners of the top wild-card spot in the Western Conference, with two games in hand. Or that Minnesota, in ninth place in the West and out of the playoffs, is, likewise, just a point back. It's better to look up at St. Louis, which the Stars trail by just a point with a game in hand.
That's macro.
As for micro, it's about keeping the work ethic where it's been, and that's been one of the interesting themes that's come out of this recent spate of good to great play from the Stars (they are 9-3-3 in their last 15 games) -- how the players are holding each other accountable, not just the coaches.
"We feel like we're playing playoffs already," said defenseman Stephen Johns, whose game has followed an upward arc for the past two months or so.
"We're playing well right now and I think we're talking to each other, helping each other out, holding each other accountable. And when you do that, you kind of just let the process happen itself."
It's not a process that is repeated everywhere with every team, however.
"Honestly, I think it comes down to just that we have a lot of grown men in here and not a lot of egos," Johns said. "And I think when you check your ego at the door, and you buy into what the coaching staff wants you to do and understand that the only way to win is to buy into that system, nothing's more fun than winning."

From the beginning (again)

Apart from the points earned, the ability of the Stars to identify and correct issues on the fly was a key factor in last week's successful road trip.
The team started slowly in Detroit and Columbus and rallied for three of four points in those games. The question is now that the team is at home and comfortable, can it bring the same kind of start they did against Buffalo, where it scored twice in the first and four more times in the second en route to a 7-1 win to close out the four-game road trip.
That's on the coaching staff, Hitchcock said. But it's also a good test of what Johns was talking about vis-a-vis the accountability because, in general, the Stars play a brand of hockey that's hard to play.
"When you restrict the other team's ability to have offensive opportunities, you get chances yourself. But it's a tough sell," Hitchcock said. "It's not an easy thing to sell and it's a harder thing to maintain. Kind of checking for chances, or basing your foundation on proper positional play defensively, so you can create offense."
The thing is, if a team does get it, they can keep it for a long time.
"Some teams get locked into it and they stay in it for years, and they're very competitive," Hitchcock said. "You look at Nashville, you look at teams like St. Louis, you look at teams that are really good defensively -- they're good offensively. But it's a tough sell to get it going."

Injury woes continue

The Stars are coming off a 3-0-1 road trip against Eastern Conference opponents last week, but they return home to some familiar injury news.
Martin Hanzal, who left Saturday's game against Buffalo after playing 8:32, did not skate Monday and is not expected to play Tuesday or Thursday, representing his fifth departure from the lineup with injury (sixth if you count an ankle injury that kept him out of preseason games).
Hitchcock believes it's all connected and that the reality is even though Hanzal is officially considered "day to day," the Stars aren't looking at getting Hanzal back to 100 percent, but rather hoping he gets back to an acceptable level of recovery and pain tolerance for him to play.
At 70 to 80 percent, Hanzal is still "a helluva player," Hitchcock said. But it's sobering news to say the least, even if it's not particularly surprising. What this means is that even when he's in the lineup, there will be a cloud of uncertainty that will follow Hanzal for the balance of the season.
That's not ideal, obviously, especially given how important the big center, who was signed to a three-year deal in the offseason as an unrestricted free agent, is to the lineup.
Projecting to April, Hanzal in the lineup in some form will, likewise, be key if the Stars are to make a dent come playoff time.

One big man for another … make that two

To compensate for Hanzal's return to the sideline, the Stars brought up Jason Dickinson from the American Hockey League on Monday and it's expected he'll center Devin Shore and Brett Ritchie on the team's fourth line.
That would leave Gemel Smith as the scratched forward -- a position he's been in for six of the last seven games in spite of a strong game against Boston to start last week's road trip.
Dickinson, quite simply, has more Hanzal-like qualities down the middle.
In other news, and speaking of missing big men, Marc Methot is making "significant progress" and it's hoped that he will return to the ice by the end of the week and skate through the All-Star break.
"He's doing everything he can off the ice to get ready to go on the ice. But he's not able to join us yet," Hitchcock said.
What has been interesting in the absence of Methot, who has played in one game since Nov. 6 with a knee injury, is how rookie Dillon Heatherington has become a de-facto replacement for Methot in just two games since being called up from Texas.
This is not to say that Julius Honka played poorly in the 15 games in which he appeared over a 16-game span prior to Heatherington's insertion in the lineup last week in Columbus. Playing mostly with Johns, Honka acquitted himself well. But while Honka's upside is skating and his offensive instincts, Heatherington is a Methot clone physically (he's 6-foot-4, 215 lbs.) and in his style of game.
And it's clear the coaching staff has been impressed -- and quickly so. The 22-year-old, who was acquired at the trade deadline last year from Columbus, will suit up for his third straight game tonight.
"Solid," Hitchcock said of Heatherington, a Calgary native. "He makes good decisions with the puck. He's smart. Smart without it. And smart with it. He helps us. We're not trying to hide him on the ice; we don't have to hide him. He can play against good players, he can play against physical players.
"He's a good element for us. He's a really enthusiastic guy. The guys love him. He does little things with the puck that really help you out a lot."

Panthers on the prowl

The Panthers are another Eastern Conference foe that, when just viewing the standings, don't measure up to the Stars given their 19-20-6 record -- 14 points fewer than Dallas. But their recent level of play shows the Panthers are an evolving, improving team.
They're 7-4-1 in their last 11 and, in spite of a loss to Nashville in their last game, were good.
"I watched them play against Vegas (a win for Florida at home against former head coach Gerard Gallant), they were terrific," Hitchcock said. "They were really good in Nashville, so they've got a lot of dynamic players. They get a lot of shots on goal and there are times that they can overwhelm you offensively."
James Reimer, who's been excellent in relief of the injured Roberto Luongo, will return to the Panther net tonight after taking a game off against Nashville. He had appeared in 19 straight games prior to that.
The team leads the NHL in shorthanded goals, and over the past 25 games, they have the third-ranked penalty kill in the league.
That said, head coach Bob Boughner acknowledged the Stars are at a different place than when the Panthers nipped Dallas in a shootout in South Florida back in mid-November.
"They're all on the same page now, No. 1," he said. "I think Hitch has got that system nice and tight. I think their goaltender's been a lot better than it was at the beginning of the season, and their big boys are all contributing on a nightly basis.
"And that's what makes them a good team."
This story was not subject to approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club. You can follow Scott on Twitter at @OvertimeScottB, and listen to his Burnside Chats podcast here.