The Edmonton Oilers’ odyssey without their two top players will continue on Wednesday when they host the Dallas Stars, who are in second place in the Western Conference standings with a 45-21-4 record. After beating the lowly Seattle Kraken minus Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl over the weekend, this will be a significantly bigger test for the home team.
1. Much like the Oilers, the Stars are in a race for home-ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs. Dallas is eight points back of the Central Division-leading Winnipeg Jets for first place and they’re three points up on the Colorado Avalanche for second place with two games in hand.
The Oilers are coming into action on Wednesday in third place in the Pacific Division after both the Vegas Golden Knights and Los Angeles Kings won on Tuesday. Edmonton is two points back of the Kings for second place with the same amount of games played and they’re seven points behind the Golden Knights for the division lead with one game in hand.
Next week, Vegas will host the Oilers for the final meeting between the two teams during the 2024-25 regular season. The Oilers will play the Kings twice more in April, once in Los Angeles and once in Edmonton.
2. This will be the third and final game between the Oilers and Stars in the regular season. Dallas hosted the Oilers in October amid the team’s slow start and cruised to a 4-1 win. The teams played in Edmonton right after the trade deadline in March and the Oilers edged out a 5-4 victory.
Only three times since they moved from Minnesota to Dallas in 1993-94 have the Oilers beaten the Stars in a regular season series: 2016-17, 2019-20, 2022-23. Edmonton and Dallas have met seven times in the playoffs, with the Oilers winning in 1996-97 and 2023-24.
3. When the Oilers beat the Stars earlier this month, they spoiled the debut of Mikko Rantanen, who Dallas acquired from the Carolina Hurricanes ahead of the trade deadline. The Stars had also previously acquired skilled forward Mikael Granlund and former Oiler Cody Ceci to gear up for the playoffs but the splash of adding of Rantanen boosted their status as a Stanley Cup contender.
Like when he was moved from Colorado to Carolina in January, Rantanen is having a slow start with his new team. Through eight games with the Stars, the big Finn has two goals and five points while being outscored 4-to-2 at even strength.
The Stars have gone 4-2-2 since adding Rantanen. They lost to the Oilers and Jets in regulation, they fell to Colorado and Tampa Bay in overtime, and their wins were against the Canucks, Ducks, Flyers, and Wild, with the ones over Vancouver and Minnesota coming in regulation.
When the Avs traded Rantanen to the Hurricanes for Martin Necas and Jack Drury on January 25, the team had a 28-19-2 record. Since then, Colorado’s front office solidified their roster with the additions of Brock Nelson, Charlie Coyle, Jimmy Vesey, Ryan Lindgren, and Erik Johnson and the Avs have gone 16-6-1.
4. The Stars rank sixth in the NHL with 235 goals and they’re third in the league with 180 goals against. Their power play is just above league average at 22.5 percent and their 85.0 percent penalty kill is the best in the league.
Jason Robertson leads the team with 29 goals, Matt Duchene is right behind him with 27, Wyatt Johnston is third with 26, and Roope Hintz is fourth with 25. After those four, the Stars have Mason Marchment, Jamie Benn, and Evgenii Dadonov all within a few goals of reaching the 20-goal mark.
Leading defencemen on the Stars in scoring is Thomas Harley, who has stepped up with top defender Miro Heiskanen on the shelf with a knee injury. The 18th overall pick from the 2019 draft has 15 goals and 45 points through 68 games, two points shy of matching his career-high.
Dallas boasts one of the NHL’s strongest goaltending duos with Jake Oettinger and veteran backup Casey DeSmith between the pipes. Oettinger is 33-15-3 with a .909 save percentage in 51 starts and DeSmith is 12-6-1 with a .916 save percentage in 21 appearances.
5. When the Oilers beat the Seattle Kraken 5-4 on Saturday, they got three goals from Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, one from Adam Henrique, and another from Jeff Skinner. Going up against the defence and goaltending of the Stars will be a taller task for the Oilers, who will be playing in their second game without both Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.
Nugent-Hopkins has been on fire for the Oilers since moving from McDavid’s wing to the centre position with Vasily Podkolzin and Viktor Arvidsson on his wings. Over his last four games, RNH has four goals and nine points along with a plus-seven rating.
