Stars look to carry road momentum into matchup against McDavid, Draisaitl

The Stars have a lot of things swirling around on Wednesday night.
One, they're coming off a long road trip, and the first home game afterward can often be a trap in the NHL.
Two, they get a later start because of a national TV broadcast on TNT.

Three, they are facing two of the most dangerous players in the NHL in Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, as well as the top power play in the league.
So, lots to digest there.
The good thing for Dallas is it was pretty good on that road trip and appears to be taking steps to get even better as it heads into Game 34. The Stars were 3-1-1 against some very good teams on the road and now sit 19-8-6, tied for fifth in the NHL with 44 points. They are fourth in goal differential at plus-27 and are Top 10 in both power play and penalty kill.
"Our game is coming," Stars coach Pete DeBoer said. "We're adding layers every time. I think coming into the season, there were some areas that we wanted to concentrate on and some areas we had to put on the back burner until we got some of the priority stuff cleaned up. We talked about it since Day 1 - getting out of our zone cleaner which will set up our neutral zone. Recently, we've been trying to spend time on our forecheck, and we've seen a bump in our O-zone time and numbers and share, which tells me we're getting details on that stuff. When you lay out the plan in the summer, we're probably right where I was hoping we would be."

The road trip was a great display of maturity. Dallas lost a 2-1 game at Pittsburgh in the final minute and then came back with wins at New Jersey and Washington. In doing so, the team as a whole faced challenges and several different individuals stood up. Both Jake Oettinger and Scott Wedgewood stole games, while Jani Hakanpää, Colin Miller, Ty Dellandrea, Wyatt Johnston and Esa Lindell added important goals.
"You've got to win all different ways," DeBoer said. "I thought we had a foundation of defending well on the trip against some high-octane teams. Other than the Washington game, I thought we really defended hard, and that gave us a chance to hang around and have a chance to win. I think what I liked is we played four teams that put a lot of pressure on you, and I thought we managed the momentum of the games. We had quite a bit of maturity to our game on the road against really good teams. That's good to see."
Edmonton will be adding the pressure too. The Oilers have the top two scorers in the NHL in McDavid (64 points in 33 games) and Draisaitl (54 points in 33 games), and the top power play at 32.8 percent. Dallas beat the Oilers in Edmonton, 6-2, on Nov. 5. The Stars' penalty kill, which ranks fourth in the league at 83.8 percent, held the Oilers to 1-for-6 with the man advantage.
"I'm not selling state secrets here - if you put Edmonton on the power play, there's probably a good chance you're losing tonight," DeBoer said. "We did get away with it in Edmonton, but we can't do that again tonight."
And with the Stars in the middle of a stretch where 14 of 19 games are on the road, they don't want to squander any opportunities on home ice.
Key Numbers
47
While Edmonton has the top two scorers in the league, Stars forwards Jason Robertson is fourth with 47 points (24 goals, 23 assists) in 33 games. Robertson broke a seven-game goal drought with an empty-netter against Columbus Monday.
21
The Stars have scored first in 21 games. That's tied for the league lead. Dallas is 15-5-1 when scoring first.
343
Edmonton ranks third in the league with 343 giveaways. Dallas ranks 11th at 290.
He said it
"I think it speaks to the character of our group, the leadership of our group, that we believe even if you've given up a goal, that you can get right back at things. The types of goals that we scored tonight I thought were very good. We got contributions from a lot of people, and we came into a tough building and got a point. We're ready to take that and move on."
- Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft after a 4-3 overtime win in Nashville.
Expected lineup
Robertson-Hintz-Pavelski
Kiviranta-Dellandrea-Seguin
Benn-Johnston-Marchment
Tufte-Faksa-Glendening
Heiskanen-Lundkvist
Lindell-Hakanpää
Suter-Miller
Oettinger
Wedgewood
This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.
Mike Heika is a Senior Staff Writer for DallasStars.com and has covered the Stars since 1994. Follow him on Twitter @MikeHeika.