What to watch for as Stars seek third straight win at Ducks

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- The Dallas Stars will be looking for a third straight win in the penultimate game of the regular season as they visit the Duck Pond in Anaheim tonight for a Game 81 date with the Ducks.
Here's what to watch for.

McKenna earns rare start

For the first time in more than three years, 34-year-old Mike McKenna will skate out onto NHL ice and start an NHL game.
McKenna came on in relief of an injured Kari Lehtonen on Tuesday in San Jose with the Stars trailing 2-0 and shut the door as Dallas stormed back for a 4-2 win. McKenna was outstanding in earning his first NHL win since Dec. 23, 2013 and just his sixth win all-time.
But head coach Ken Hitchcock said McKenna has earned the start, and it's clear the Stars rallied around the upbeat, hard-working journeyman.
Now, we'll see if he can carry over his strong play in relief to a rare start.
"Well, I trust in it because it's the morning. I don't know. We don't know how it's going to turn out," Hitchcock admitted Friday. "We're real hopeful for a guy that's put in all the work he's looked sharp. He looked sharp (Thursday), he looked really sharp today. What the heck, you know?
"Sometimes there's just an opportunity where people have earned the right to start a hockey game, but we're going to go and do what we've done."
McKenna said the mindset of going from an in-game replacement to knowing for more than 24 hours that he was going to start tonight isn't that much different.
"It's just kind of adapting your morning warmup and your warmup during the game, getting ready to (do) it," he said. "Otherwise, you try to approach every game the same way, whether you're playing or not. So it's not a big change."
As for nerves, those are something that are constant when it comes to games. Or they should be.
"You know what? There's nerves every game. It's been like that my whole career and I think you're probably missing a heartbeat if you don't have some," McKenna said. "But I'm trying to make sure it's not any more than normal. It's another game."
Anaheim head coach Randy Carlyle said McKenna's presence in the Dallas goal won't change their approach.
"Again, we're more about 80 percent about what we do (and) 20 percent on the opposition," Carlyle said. "Whoever they have in net, obviously the guy went in and played well for them, so you got to credit the guy. He's been around the league a while and now is finally earning an opportunity, and that's good to see. That's a good-luck story for a guy that's been hard at it and working to get to the NHL, and now he's here, so good for him."

Strong finish for the captain

We often talk about leading by example, and with the Stars officially eliminated from the playoff chase on Sunday, it has been up to the leadership group to set the tone on the ice -- to meet the challenge of playing like pros, even though there is nothing left to play for in this final week.
On Tuesday, it was Jamie Benn setting the tone with three goals, including the first goal of the game for Dallas and the winner late in the third period after deftly stripping Tomas Hertl of the puck and deking Martin Jones.
Kudos to Benn, who has points in nine of his last 11 games, for leading the way with some inspired play, even though the playoffs aren't part of the equation.
Look for Benn to play with Tyler Seguin in the middle and Brett Ritchie on the right side as they try to win a third straight game and second straight on the road where the team has struggled for much of the season, going 15-19-5 away from American Airlines Center.

Better response

Now, having said all of that, when San Jose scored their second goal of the game late in the first period, the Stars were at a low ebb and looked very much like a team that was playing out the string.
Halfway through Tuesday's game, they were being outshot 21-6. That kind of response is something that displeased Hitchcock and he let his team know that.
"We sagged when the second goal went in. We sagged and we sagged emotionally, and I'd like to see us keep going," Hitchcock said.
"It took Mike going in and a couple of big saves to get us back engaged emotionally. When the second goal went in, we really dropped our heads and we haven't done that all year, and I didn't like it and I told the guys that, and then we responded and played probably the best period we've played for a long time on the road."
It will be interesting, then, to see how the Stars respond to the adversity that is inevitable in most games, especially on the road.

Playoff-bound Ducks banged up, but still quacking

As noted, Anaheim has qualified for the playoffs and is headed to the postseason for the sixth straight season.
The Ducks have overcome injuries to key personnel all season and will continue to do so headed into the playoffs with star defenseman Cam Fowler lost for two to six weeks with a shoulder injury. Starting netminder John Gibson is considered day-to-day and has been prone to injury throughout his career, while veteran defenseman Kevin Bieksa is out two to five weeks with hand surgery.
The Ducks, who will go with Ryan Miller in goal tonight, have an outside shot at home ice in the first round, but they will need to win against Dallas and at Arizona on Saturday and hope San Jose loses to Minnesota in its season finale.
The Ducks could play Vegas, San Jose or Los Angeles in the first round, but Carlyle's focus is very simple in spite of the uncertainty of what lies ahead.
"We're here to play the right way and to continue to get points that are available to us," the Ducks coach said. "That's the simple motto that I always go to: You coach the game to win, and you play the game to win."

Making an impression

Gemel Smith scored the tying goal in Tuesday's come-from-behind win and has looked good in the three games in which he's appeared of late.
His 13:49 in ice time Tuesday was a season-high for him, and playing with Devin Shore and Tyler Pitlick his energy will once again be counted on against a deep Ducks forward contingent.
Remi Elie is another young player that has made an impression of late with his energetic play.
"I think the biggest thing for me is the consistency. There's been a lot of younger players that have had an opportunity to play bigger minutes than normal just because of the way we were built this year, and you hope that they take that and move forward with it and become consistent players," Hitchcock said.
"The NHL is two things: it's a second- and third-effort league and it's a consistent league, and the players that are able to grasp that, pick it up, they survive and the other guys fall by the wayside."
Julius Honka is expected to be back in the lineup for a third straight game, and while he struggled at times against a good Sharks team, the Ducks represent another stern test for the young defender, given their physicality and heavy reliance on an aggressive forecheck.
If Honka is going to be an everyday player next season, these are the teams he will need to raise the level of his game against.
"He's had good mobility," Hitchcock said of Honka. "Mobility's not the issue, it's mobility with the puck that's the issue. Can they (young defenders) process it quick enough to get it moving quick enough? This is a north-south league that you got to advance the puck quick so can you read the pressure, get the puck moving and get it into the forwards' hands as quick as you can, and Honks is getting better at that. But that's still a challenge for him.
"That's the element of his game that's going to have to increase if he's going to be one of those go-to guys where it looks like every team's got two or three of them on their back end."
This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.
Scott Burnside is a senior digital correspondent for DallasStars.com. You can follow him on Twitter @OvertimeScottB, and listen to his podcast.