With this schedule, staying fresh is no easy task for Stars

Stars (14-14-10, 38 points) vs. Panthers (26-11-4, 56 points)

DALLAS --Rick Bowness said one of the key reasons the Stars looked so good Thursday in a 5-1 victory at Chicago was the fact coaches pretty much kept players off the ice between the two games. The majority of Dallas players didn't skate on Wednesday and then nobody went to the rink Thursday morning.
Bowness said the team is going to have to stick with that plan as it continues to catch up on the eight games that were postponed earlier in the season.
Dallas has played three fewer games than Florida, for example, so while the Panthers wait in Dallas for a Tuesday rematch after Saturday's matinee, the Stars will be traveling to Nashville Sunday for a game.
"The grind is going to worse," Bowness said. "You think it's been bad to this point, take a look at the next month."

The Stars play their final 18 games in a span of 31 days. Bowness said he trusts the players will be giving it their all, but that it will be an incredible challenge to stay both physically strong and mentally fresh.
"First of all, this team works very hard. It is a committed team, and I'm confident with the grind that's coming that we'll respond as best we can," he said. "The second part of that is we have to continue to monitor their rest days. Your maintenance day is not just a physical maintenance day, it's a mental maintenance day. So, one, we know these guys are going to continue to work, and two, we've got to continue to manage their rest as best we can."
Bowness said it was clear on games like Sunday and Tuesday that the team was struggling both physically and mentally.
"You can tell when they're flat, they're tired," he said. "It's going to come again, it's going to raise its ugly head, and we just have to deal with it."

Well, isn't that special

Both the Stars and Panthers have been talking special teams recently. That's because with four of the top six power plays in the Central Division, special teams are huge on a lot of nights.
Carolina leads the NHL in power play success at 29.7 percent. Dallas is third at 25.6 percent, Tampa Bay is fourth at 25.4 percent and Chicago is sixth at 24.6 percent. Florida has killed 11 straight penalties in the past three games, and that was a nice accomplishment, players said.
"I feel like we're playing a little smarter right now," said Florida's Alex Wennberg. "We're moving our feet and don't really give them much time. Being that aggressive really helps us right now with winning battles, winning pucks."

Asked about facing the likes of Carolina, Tampa Bay, Dallas and Chicago, Wennberg said: "Those are some great power plays we're up against and it makes you focus a little bit more, but it doesn't matter really who's on the ice. Whoever you play, you've just got to be ready. When you have the opportunity to kill a penalty, you've just got to do it."
Bowness said his team also is pushing hard for special teams success Dallas had two power-play goals Thursday in a 5-1 win over Chicago and is 6-for-13 (46.2 percent) in its past seven games.
"Just go to our last game, our power play gets a couple and the penalty killers do a great job, so specialty teams are key all of the time," Bowness said. "Our penalty killers have to come through today. Specialty teams are always huge, moreso as you get closer to the end of the season."

Dickinson, Hanley inching toward return

Anton Khudobin in goal for the Stars. He is 5-3-1 in his career against Florida with a 2.00 GAA and .944 save percentage, including 1-1-1 this season with a 1.97 GAA and .951 save percentage.
Sergei Bobrovsky will be in goal for Florida. He is 15-1-1 in his career against the Stars with a 1.86 GAA and .940 save percentage.
Jason Dickinson and Joel Hanley are close to returning but won't play today. Alexander Radulov, Joel Kiviranta, Tyler Seguin and Ben Bishop still are out for the Stars. Dallas is hoping to get a better update this week.

By the numbers

46

The Stars are coming off a game where they had 46 hits against Chicago. That's a season high. They had 41 hits on Tuesday, second most this year. Dallas ranks sixth in the NHL in hits per 60 minutes at 24.77.

18

Jamie Benn has 18 points (11 goals, seven assists) in his past 14 games against the Panthers. Florida's Jonathan Huberdeau has 18 points (seven goals, 11 assists) in 16 career games against the Stars.

34.3

Florida ranks second in the NHL in shots on goal per game at 34.3. Dallas ranks second in the NHL in fewest shots on goal against at 27.1 per game.

He said it

"It's been a bit of a grind for myself this year to find the back of the net so to be able to chip in and us get the win definitely feels good. I take pride in trying to help our team win in other ways with physical play, penalty kill and playing good defensively, but I wouldn't be honest if I told you not scoring wasn't starting to bug me a little bit. It felt good to get those two tonight."-- Stars winger Blake Comeau, who had two goals Thursday after scoring just one in his first 32 games
This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.
Mike Heikais a Senior Staff Writer for DallasStars.com and has covered the Stars since 1994. Follow him on Twitter @MikeHeika, and listen to his podcast.