Stars-Canadiens Preview

Montreal Canadiens at Dallas Stars
Wednesday, January 4
7:00 p.m.
TV: Fox Sports Southwest
Radio: The Ticket 1310 AM/96.7 FM
About the Stars
The Stars (16-15-7) are coming off a 3-1 loss to Florida on Saturday. The Stars fell behind 3-0 in the first period and could never catch up.
"The slow start killed us. Collectively from our forwards, defensemen, and goaltender," said Stars coach Lindy Ruff. "We lost almost every faceoff and had to chase the puck around. When you do that you end up taking a couple of penalties, which we did, and you get behind - it's hard. We created our own problems and that first 20 minutes was too tough to recover from."
The loss ended a three-game winning streak and five-game points streak for the Stars.
Stars captain Jamie Benn, who suffered a foot injury in Saturday's game, did not practice Monday and Tuesday and will miss Wednesday's game. He is listed as day to day.
Forward Antoine Roussel, who has missed the past four games with an upper-body injury, has gone through two full practices this week and could play Wednesday.
Wednesday's game concludes a three-game homestand for the Stars.
Injuries: LW Antoine Roussel (upper body) is questionable. LW Jamie Benn (foot) is out. C/LW Mattias Janmark (knee) and RW Ales Hemsky (hip) are on injured reserve.

About the Canadiens
The Canadiens (23-9-6) won 2-1 in overtime at Nashville Tuesday night. Max Pacioretty scored the game-winner with 30 seconds remaining in the extra period. Canadiens defenseman Shea Weber scored in his first game in Nashville since being traded from the Predators to Montreal, and former Predator Alexander Radulov had the primary assist on both Montreal goals.
"It feels good to win," Weber said. "Whether it is scoring a goal or blocking a shot, it just happened to be scoring a goal tonight. It was big and obviously Pacioretty.**