FRISCO---After losing 4-1 at the Minnesota Wild on Saturday night, the Dallas Stars' winless streak now sits at four games.
However, there might be light at the end of the tunnel as Dallas starts a three-game home stand at American Airlines Center on Tuesday night. But the bad news is first up is the reigning Stanley Cup champion Los Angeles Kings.
But the Kings are on a four-game winless run themselves and Daryl Sutter's club is also in the final game of a five-game road trip, a trek they are 0-3-1 on thus far.
"Well, obviously (they're the) Stanley Cup champions," Stars head coach Lindy Ruff said after practice on Monday. "They've struggled a little bit. The 70s line has been good for them. We know that."
Dallas is just 1-0-4 at home and Ruff knows that if his club is to start righting the ship as they embark on a busy November, the Stars need to adhere to a simple formula.
"It starts first we play well in our end and go out from there. We've been working hard on the offensive zone stuff where we need to create more second opportunities. I think we've played too much one-on-one hockey, which has hurt us in the offensive zone," Ruff said.
And for a team who has great puck movement and speed as two of their biggest strengths, the lack of the first thing has clearly put a damper on their end-to-end offensive game.
"Puck's got to move quicker, D got to do a good job of moving pucks through. That'll lead to first and second opportunities. We've been way behind that marker since day one and I think it finally caught up to us," Ruff said.
The Stars figure to get at least one boost to open the home stand as either veteran defenseman Sergei Gonchar (ankle) or fellow Russian winger Valeri Nichushkin (hip, groin) figure to return against the Kings.
"Val got through the weekend OK and again at practice (on Monday), I thought (he looked) pretty good," Ruff said. "I think he's a little bit behind on the conditioning and for me, it's just getting a good conditioning read on Sergei. I think he's healthy enough to play, it's just where his conditioning level's at."
If Gonchar returns to the ice, it will mark his season debut as he has been out since preseason with an ankle injury.
And the news is favorable on winger Ales Hemsky who had to leave the Minnesota loss with an upper-body injury, but it appears he too will play against the reigning champs.
"Gave it a try, got through practice, which is good. I would fully anticipate he would be able to play," Ruff said of Hemsky.
Ruff also expects Seguin to play on Tuesday night barring an unforeseen situation on game day.
"He had some wisdom teeth issues, so he missed practice today and had that dealt with yesterday," Ruff said. "All indications is that take today off and he'll be able to play tomorrow."
After the Kings, Dallas will host the Nashville Predators on Thursday and the San Jose Sharks on Saturday to end the home stand.
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