Thomas Harley draws in while Denis Gurianov sits against Winnipeg

Stars (3-4-1, 7 points) vs. Winnipeg Jets (4-2-2, 10 points)

Rick Bowness joked on Monday that he knows all too well just how close the difference is to being in the playoffs and not being in the playoffs.
"I've seen it for 35 years," he said.
The last time the NHL held a "normal" playoff format in 2018-19, Montreal missed by two points. The year before, both Florida and St. Louis missed by a point.
If the playoffs were to start today, the Stars would miss by a point.
Let's just say they know how close this could be at the end of the season.
That's why Central Division games are so important this year. Not only do the Stars have some great competition in teams like Colorado, St. Louis, Winnipeg and Minnesota, the return to normal in the division format means rivalries and familiarity will once again play a big role.
Dallas plays its first Central Division game of the season tonight at a place where it has struggled in the past - Winnipeg. The Jets are 8-1-0 against the Stars in their past nine home games, and they've earned that record convincingly by outscoring Dallas 41-18 in that span.
With the Jets on a six-game point streak (4-0-2), the Stars will get a chance to see just how tough the division can be this season.
"I think this is the toughest division in the league," Bowness said. "We've fallen behind by a couple of points, and we've got to get back up there."

Dallas currently sits 3-4-1 for seven points in eight games (.438). St. Louis is in first place at 6-1-0. Winnipeg is second at 4-2-2. And Minnesota is third at 5-3-0. The top three teams in each division qualify for the playoffs, with the next two teams in the Western Conference qualifying as wildcards.
While there has been the thought that five teams would come from the Central and just three from the Pacific, even that notion is being challenged early in the season. Bottom line, if the Stars really want to be assured a postseason berth, they better get cracking.
"Two points now is just as important as two points in April," Bowness said. "There's got to be 60 minutes of urgency from our players."
The Stars post the playoff standings outside the locker room in Frisco and at American Airlines Center.
"What more motivation do you need?" Bowness said. "You want to make the playoffs, where are we, where are we standing?"

What to watch

After struggling early in the season, the Stars have done a great job of creating a lot more possession and a lot more scoring chances.
Dallas started the year getting outshot by 6.6 shots per game (28.0-34-6) in the first five contests. They've flipped that in the past three, by outshooting opponents by 11.4 shots per game (35.0-23.6).
The problem with that is they were 3-2-0 in their first five games and are 0-2-1 in the past three. Part of the problem is they've gotten behind and have been chasing games, which of course leads to a better shot differential when the opposition starts to sit back. The other part of the problem is they simply cannot convert great scoring chances, and that's become very frustrating.
"Twenty scoring chances and one goal," said Bowness after a 4-1 home loss to Ottawa Friday. "The right guys are getting the chances and it's not going in for them right now. We can't give anybody three goals like we did tonight, but we're generating enough offensive chances to get back us back in the game at the right times, but we don't capitalize on them. It's that simple."
Jason Robertson has returned to play after missing the first six games with a shoulder injury, and that's helped. He's back with Roope Hintz and Joe Pavelski, and that trio has been dangerous every game.
"You've got to find ways to score goals in this league, and we've had some great looks," said Pavelski. "We had second chances, we had breakaways, we had zone time, it's just not going in right now.
"Some of the looks we had [Friday], I'd take those all over again," Pavelski said. "There's a lot of good chances out there, and at the end of the day, you have to score. Whether it's more traffic, whether it's some tips, whether it's putting that puck inside a post or making a shot. Sometimes you just have to make a shot. There's no one thing to goal scoring, I don't think, there's a bunch of them, and it's got to be a feeling thing as well, and we need to find it."
Bowness said he'd also reunite the line of Tyler Seguin centering Jamie Benn and Alexander Radulov. That trio can be explosive, and by playing Benn at wing instead of center, it allows the other lines to fall together more naturally.
"We've got to get them going," Bowness said. "Clearly, we've got to get our top-end guys scoring, putting points on the board. At this point, that gives us the best chance at doing that."
The line has had its ups and downs in the early season, as both Seguin and Radulov were returning from injury rehab. However, they feel they're more in stride eight games into the season.
"I think, honestly, it'll be a bit different now," Seguin said. "Rads has been going, I feel like I've been going, too. Jamie's one shot away from breaking out. A lot more promising feeling right now than maybe the first few games. We were just in our own zone too much when we were first playing together this year."
'We're so good when we're on the attack in their zone," Seguin added. "We're so good at reading off each other and staying hounding on the forecheck and finding that dot, so get back to that."
Bowness said he believes the line can get back to the place it has been when it was clicking.
"They read off each other, there's chemistry when they're on," Bowness said. "They've had some games this year where they've been awful together, and I know that, but you still go back to that there's some history there, there's some chemistry there. They've made some plays over the years that they just read off each other, know where the other guy is. We've got to get that back."

Lineup updates

Thomas Harley has been called up from the AHL and will make his regular season NHL debut. Harley, 20, played one game in the Edmonton bubble in 2020, but played all last season and the first six games of this season in the AHL.
He is a first-round draft pick (2020) and is known as a skating defenseman who can create offensively. He'll be paired with Jani Hakanpää on the third pairing and could get time on the power play.

"He's a threat on the blueline, he's got a good shot, and he's very confident with the puck, so we want to see," Bowness said. "He's been playing very well in Austin, so it's time to give him a good look."
Denis Gurianov skated late and is expected to be a healthy scratch. The 23-year-old winger has struggled this season, and needs to be better at his all-around game, Bowness said.
"There's a whole lot more to a team game, to a 5-on-5 game, that we need from Denis. It's as simple as that," Bowness said. "We can't wait for an overtime rush or a power-play one-timer. There's a lot more to the game."
Gurianov has flashed tremendous offensive skill, including an overtime backhand against the Kings. However, the coaching staff has moved him around the past two seasons because they can't find a place in the lineup where he fits. In that same time frame, Robertson has jumped in and seized a place on a line with Hintz.
"You have to play as a five-man unit," Bowness said. "When one guy is off, he's hurting the other four. Denis needs to give us more in 5-on-5 play, with and without the puck."

Numbers

Minus-66

The Stars' players are a combined minus-66 in their respective careers against the Jets. John Klingberg is worst at minus-15, while Michael Raffl is best at plus-4.

14

Kyle Connor ranks fourth in the NHL in scoring with 14 points (seven goals, seven assists) in eight games. In his career against the Stars, Connor has 14 points (eight goals, six assists) in 14 games and is plus-7 in that span.

13

Both the Stars and Jets have allowed 13 goals through eight games at 5-on-5. However, Winnipeg has scored 19 goals at 5-on-5, while the Stars have tallied just seven.

He said it

"Things are going to come. We are a good team. We will get through it." -- Bowness on the team's scoring problems
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.