Avalanche, Stars set for crucial Central matchup

MANALAPAN, Fla. -- The top two teams in the NHL will face off against each other Wednesday in a nationally televised game in the United States that has far-reaching implications on the Central Division standings and what’s to come in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

The Colorado Avalanche, in first place in the Central with 97 points in 66 games, are home at Ball Arena against the Dallas Stars, the second-place team in the division with 94 points in 67 games (9:30 p.m. ET; HBO MAX, TNT, TVAS2).

It’s the second of three games between the Stars and Avalanche in a span of 30 days. Colorado won 5-4 in a shootout in Dallas on March 6. The Stars are also home against the Avalanche on April 4.

“These games do (feel different) because there’s a mutual respect between both teams,” Dallas general manager Jim Nill said. “They know that, ‘Hey, this is a team we’re probably going to have to go through if we want to win the Stanley Cup.’ The players know that. They understand that. And they’ve got a lot of pride.

“But win or lose, it’s not the end all be all. There’s a long ways to go yet.”

That sentiment is shared by the Avalanche and their GM, Chris MacFarland, and it is important for many reasons, but the emphasis on the standings plays a big role in why the game Wednesday is so meaningful and intriguing.

The Avalanche (44-13-9) and Stars (42-15-10) are the top two teams in the League. The Minnesota Wild (39-18-12), who are third in the Central with 90 points in 69 games, are tied for third in points in the overall League standings with the Buffalo Sabres and Carolina Hurricanes. They still have two games remaining against the Stars.

Because the playoff format guarantees one of the Avalanche, Stars and Wild will be eliminated in the first round and two will be out following the second round, finishing first in the division matters as it all but ensures avoiding playing one of the other two in the first round.

“With the start we had I think it’s important (to finish first in the division),” MacFarland said Tuesday from the League’s GM meetings. “I think Dallas would say the same thing. I think Minnesota would say the same thing.”

But saying that now and stressing it with still a double-digit number of games to play are different, which is why MacFarland and Nill are choosing to focus on how their teams are playing instead of the standings even when pressed on the importance of finishing first.

“I get the question, but I think for us ‘Bedsy’ (coach Jared Bednar) does a good job and our coaches do a good job of just focusing on the process day by day, and if we do our thing right day after day then the scoreboard, the standings will kind of take care of themselves,” MacFarland said. “It’s our job to be ready to play Dallas, Chicago on Friday and then, you know, a month from now, wherever we are in the standings we’ll be ready to go for Game 1 somewhere.”

Said Nill, “This is probably an easy way out of the question, it’s really just getting ourselves ready for the playoffs. We know we’ve got to be at our best to beat these teams so we have to make sure we’re at that level.”

The Stars were, up until a 6-3 loss to the Utah Mammoth on Monday. It was their first regulation loss since Jan. 22, ending a 14-0-1 stretch in which they scored 4.13 goals per game and allowed 2.33, were 33.3 percent on the power play, including scoring in 12 consecutive games, and were 86.0 percent on the penalty kill.

They gained nine points on the Avalanche in that stretch, doing so with injuries to three key forwards: Roope Hintz, Mikko Rantanen and Radek Faksa.

The Stars will play their sixth straight game and for the 10th time in 11 games without them when the puck drops against the Avalanche. 

The hope is all three will be back before the end of the regular season.

“We’re playing very cohesive,” Nill said. “Our defensive structure is very good. Our 5-on-5 play has come up, which was a concern early in the year and kind of midyear when we hit a little bit of a bump. That’s come up. Our power play has been outstanding and the PK is finally getting its traction. Right now, we’re playing well. We’ve got a lot of injuries, but it has been an opportunity for these young guys and some other players to grab it, and they have.”

The Avalanche are also battling injuries up front, with Artturi Lehkonen set to miss his eighth consecutive game, Gabriel Landeskog his sixth and Ross Colton his fourth.

MacFarland said the hope is to have Landeskog, Lehkonen and forward Logan O'Connor, who hasn’t played all season after having hip surgery in June, in the lineup soon, with an update coming in the next week or two. He didn’t have a firm timetable on Colton.

The injuries have forced the Avalanche to use center Nazem Kadri, who was acquired in a trade with the Calgary Flames on March 6, at right wing on the top line with Nathan MacKinnon and Martin Necas. Kadri was acquired to be Colorado’s No. 3 center.

“We haven’t really seen what we envision, but that’s what you’ve got to do when you’re missing guys,” MacFarland said.

They won’t see it Wednesday either, but they will see a team hungry to catch them in the race for first place in the Central Division.

With less than one month to go in the regular season and the playoff picture around them blurry with so many teams still in the race, to the Avalanche and Stars, it is abundantly clear why finishing first matters so much, even if the day-to-day focus is more macro than that.

“There’s not a lot of weaknesses on either team,” Nill said. “These are big games.”