Devils at Stars preview

Bowness replaces Jim Montgomery, who was fired Tuesday. Stars general manager Jim Nill said that there was a "material act of unprofessionalism" discovered over the past two days that led to the firing on Tuesday morning. Montgomery had a 60-43-10 record with Dallas.

The Stars have won their past two games after an 0-3-1 stretch. Dallas is 16-4-2 in its past 22 games after a 1-7-1 start to the season. They won 3-1 against the New York Islanders on Saturday.

The Devils are 0-4-1 in their past five games and have been outscored 22-9 over the span. New Jersey lost 6-4 to the Nashville Predators on Saturday to begin a four-game road trip. They are 0-2-1 since Alain Nasreddine was named coach after John Hynes was fired.

Players to watch

Devils forward Taylor Hall has four points (two goals, two assists) in a three-game point streak.

Stars goalie Ben Bishop is 8-1-1 with a 1.82 goals-against average and a .944 save percentage in his past 11 starts.

They said it

"I can't speak for them. It was a shock for us too, so we haven't really had a chance to think about it. It has nothing to do with us, so we're just focusing on our team and letting them deal with that issue." -- Devils coach Alain Nasreddine on Dallas firing coach Jim Montgomery

"It's confusion and shock. It's definitely sad. I really liked Monty. He's a great coach. I was saying all along that I was looking forward to this being the last coach of my Stars career. Like I said, stuff happens that's not in my control or the guys' control. We trust our management and our GM Jim Nill. Whatever happened, that was a decision made by them. We support them and it's time to get to work tonight." -- Stars forward Tyler Seguin on Montgomery being fired

Devils projected lineup

Taylor Hall -- Jack Hughes -- Kyle Palmieri

Blake Coleman -- Travis Zajac -- Nikita Gusev

Jesper Boqvist -- Pavel Zacha -- Jesper Bratt

Miles Wood -- Kevin Rooney -- Wayne Simmonds

Andy Greene -- P.K. Subban

Damon Severson -- Sami Vatanen

Will Butcher -- Mirco Mueller

Mackenzie Blackwood

Louis Domingue

Scratched: John Hayden, Colton White, Michael McLeod

Injured: Nico Hischier (illness), Connor Carrick (finger), Matt Tennyson (upper body)

Stars projected lineup

Jamie Benn -- Mattias Janmark -- Tyler Seguin

Joe Pavelski -- Roope Hintz -- Alexander Radulov

Andrew Cogliano -- Radek Faksa -- Blake Comeau

Denis Gurianov -- Jason Dickinson -- Corey Perry

Esa Lindell -- John Klingberg

Jamie Oleksiak -- Miro Heiskanen

Andrej Sekera -- Roman Polak

Ben Bishop

Anton Khudobin

Scratched: Justin Dowling, Taylor Fedun

Injured: Stephen Johns (post-traumatic headaches)

Status report

Hischier was placed on injured reserve retroactive to Dec. 5. … McLeod was recalled from Binghamton of the American Hockey League on Tuesday.

Stat pack

Coleman, a Plano, Texas native, has three goals in five games against the Stars. … Heiskanen has four points (one goal, three assists) in a three-game point streak. … Bishop has won eight consecutive games against the Devils.