What to watch for as Stars seek third straight win at New Jersey

NEWARK, N.J. --The Dallas Stars continue their thus-far successful swing east with a stop in Newark and a date with one of the NHL's most surprising teams, the New Jersey Devils, tonight before closing this four-game trip Saturday in Philadelphia.
Here's what to watch for.

So far, so good

Let's recap.
A week ago, the Stars were just closing out a forgettable week against top Western Conference talent that saw them drop three straight games, including two at home. It was fair to question the team's mental toughness, not to mention their lack of finish and discipline, at the time, and it made the four-game road trip through the teeth of the Metropolitan Division this week seem like a daunting task.
But halfway through the trip east, the Stars look and feel like a different team, having knocked off the Rangers and Islanders in two of the most difficult buildings in which to win in in the NHL. In both games, they were by far the better team, in spite of having to go to a shootout against the Rangers in Monday's 2-1 win.
The offense has come from up and down the lineup, including captain Jamie Benn, who has been dominant in the two games, and Tyler Pitlick, who scored twice against the Islanders in Thursday's convincing 5-2 win, having been moved onto a line with Benn and Radek Faksa.
The balance in scoring and quality chances has coincided with Ken Hitchcock's decision to not just separate the big three -- Benn, Tyler Seguin and Alexander Radulov -- but put all three offensive stars on different lines.
Did we mention so far, so good?

Speaking of Radulov

The big right winger, who scored the second goal of the game against the Islanders, and who broke a four-game pointless streak in the process, left Wednesday's game against the Islanders after sustaining a lower-body injury. He did not practice on Thursday, but skated with energy Friday morning and is considered a go for tonight's game.
Antoine Roussel, who missed four games due to illness and then sustained an elbow injury and has missed the last two games, is expected to bring his particular energy back to the lineup Friday. At some point, Hitchcock is hoping he will line up with Martin Hanzal, who played his first game on Wednesday after missing seven with a hamstring injury.
Jason Dickinson will not play against New Jersey and the second forward to come out is not clear, as Hitchcock wants to see who the Devils dress.
The six-man unit on the blue line will remain the same, which Julius Honka will earn his third straight start. Again, so far, so good for the youngster, who has a goal and an assist in the last two games, but has struggled to find a place in the Stars' everyday lineup.
"He's been fine. He's learning what it's like to be an everyday NHL player," Hitchcock said. "He's done a good job. We're hopeful that he can help us on the power play, where that's going to be one of the strengths that we're going to need from him.
"We're going to give him these opportunities to play on the power play. Hopefully, he continues to improve."

Who saw a goaltending tandem coming?

Kari Lehtonen will get an unprecedented (for this season anyway) and entirely unexpected third straight start for the Stars against the Devils.
He earned his 300th win against the Islanders and -- as he was against the Rangers on Monday -- provided crucial, timely saves to give his team a chance to win. He's now 3-1 in his last five appearances and has given up just nine goals over that period of time.
Ben Bishop, signed to a six-year deal in the offseason, will close out the four-game road trip on Saturday in Philadelphia against a Flyers team that has now won five in a row.
Hearkening back to the start of this trip, as far as Hitchcock is concerned, it's not about 'starter' and 'backup,' it's about who's delivering the wins. In the end, the Stars will need both netminders to do so to stay in the playoff hunt in a Western Conference, where a bad week pretty much guarantees you're giving up a playoff spot.
This isn't new territory for Hitchcock, who used the 1 and 1A system of deploying goaltenders in St. Louis with Jake Allen and Brian Elliott with great success, at least in the regular season during his tenure with the Blues.
"I think the biggest thing is both drop their ego. And then just play for the team and we're approaching that here now," Hitchcock said. "And we had it obviously for six years in St. Louis and it was very effective. And we had a lot of success because of that. Both guys always end up wanting more, but at the end of the day, their job is to stop the puck and help us win, and I think when both guys get that figured out, then you've got that real success.
"We're in a very unique situation. We literally have two starters. We've got two guys that know how to start. They know how to carry the ball -- they know how to manage their body clock, and it's very effective for us."

New Jersey a devilish surprise

It's fair to say few in the hockey world anticipated that heading into the holiday season, the Devils would be two points out of first place in the ultra-competitive Metropolitan Division with games in hand.
Couple of key factors at play for the Devils, including the dynamite coaching job of John Hynes, who is in his third season as Devils head coach: The return to elite play of netminder Cory Schneider and the superlative play of a clutch of rookies, including June's first-overall pick Nico Hischier.
In fact, Hischier, with 20 points, joins Jesper Bratt (21 points) and former collegiate standout defenseman Will Butcher (20 points) in the top 10 in rookie scorers.
Under Hynes, the Devils play a quick, up-tempo game that seems counterintuitive to the often plodding style that previous Devils teams employed. The offense has slowed somewhat (they're 1-2-1 in their last four games), but they're still 12th in the league in goals per game and the power play is 14th.
"Well, they use their speed to check and they put a lot of pressure on you," Hitchcock said. "They work like crazy. They're a hard team, boy. They're a hard team to play against, because when you have speed, that's one thing. When you can skate that's one thing. But when you use your speed to create turnovers, that's the element that all coaches like. And they have that element in their game. That's why they're so hard to play against."
Doesn't look like leading scorer Taylor Hall will be in the lineup as he was injured two games ago and missed their overtime loss to Montreal on Thursday.
Of particular interest to Texas fans, however, will be the presence of two local products in the Devils lineup -- forwards Blake Coleman and Stefan Noesen, both of Plano.
"They've both looked liked they're coming in to be good players right now, especially Coleman for me," Hitchcock said. "He looks like a really effective player right now. We were talking about him. He's come a long ways. It's pretty impressive."

Take nothing for granted

For the third time in the last couple of weeks, the Stars will be getting a team on the second half of a back-to-back situation, and likely drawing their opponents' backup netminder.
With Schneider and the Devils losing in overtime at Montreal on Thursday, look for Keith Kinkaid to draw the Stars. Kinkaid, 28, has a 3.48 goals against average and .893 save percentage, and has lost his last two starts, allowing five goals in each contest.
What does that mean? About the same as it meant when the Stars entertained Nashville a week and a half ago and Juuse Saros started. And when former Stars prospect Max Lagace started for Vegas last Saturday in Dallas before he was sent to the American Hockey League.
Nothing.
Both Saros and Lagace got the better of the Stars, and the same can certainly happen at the Prudential Center if the Stars can't continue their recent habit of finishing off high-quality scoring chances.
They did not do so against Nashville and Vegas and the results were predictable -- both losses.
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.