Consistency is the name of the game in second half for Stars

Stars (22-17-2, 46 points) vs. Bruins (25-13-3, 53 points)

Tyler Seguin will turn 30 on Monday. He'll play in his 786th regular-season NHL game on Sunday. And he'll do it against the team that gave him his start and helped him win a Stanley Cup.
Lots to reflect on.
"There's still a lot of contacts from that old team, between everybody, and how special that bond is," Seguin said when asked what facing the Bruins means. "It motivates you. It's why you play."
Seguin said he drew similar inspiration from the Stars' 1999 team getting together to celebrate Sergei Zubov on Friday and said all the elements come together at times like this. As for the birthday, he said his mom and sisters have made a bigger deal about it, but he understands the impact of turning 30.
"I don't know if it's me yet," Seguin said of the birthday. "I'm just trying to stay healthy right now. I'll look back hopefully in 15 years."

Seguin's battled through several injuries and said he feels he's starting to get back to a more normal feeling in his legs. He has 12 goals and seven assists for 19 points in 41 games, and said he needs to be better. But he added that he feels like he's a different player than he was earlier in the season.
"Better. Definitely a lot better," he said. "I was feeling so positive because I didn't have the pain anymore, but I realized quickly I still had a lot to things to work on in terms of strength and explosiveness. The progress I've made is great, but I'm hoping I see the full benefits as the year goes on."
Stars coach Rick Bowness said he's hoping Seguin will continue to take strides going forward.
"It started slow, there have been some really good flashes and there's been some flashes where it's been inconsistent," Bowness said of Seguin's recovery from his injuries. "Now, we have to keep pushing him and he has to keep pushing himself to get to that upside on a more consistent basis."

What to watch

The Stars are coming off a tough 5-0 loss to Washington, but also have two big games at home where they need to get points. Bowness said the team simply needs to focus on the game Sunday.
"We aren't where we need to be because we aren't in a playoff spot," Bowness said. "In order to get up into that playoff spot, we're going to have to be a lot more consistent. That's clearly the issue, that's been the issue for most of the year with these winning streaks, losing streaks. We're sitting here at 41 games, 46 points. If we do that again, that's 92 points, you're out of the playoffs."

The Stars passed game 41 on Friday, the midpoint of the season, and Bowness told the players on Sunday morning they need to be better.
"Sometimes as players you kind of lose track of that, but Bones made a good point about it being halfway. It's something to look at. Where are we? If we did the same thing that we did for these past 41 games, we probably wouldn't make the playoffs, so that's where your standards could be and where you need to get to."
Bowness said these two games will be a great test before the team takes a break for the All-Star Game.
"We saw the other night, Washington had lost two in a row, and they came in very hungry, they were on their toes right off the bat," Bowness said. "Boston is coming in, they're a great hockey club, we know that. It'll be the same approach. We better be on our toes from the opening faceoff."

Lineup update

Michael Raffl skated Sunday morning, but still is out.
Here's a possible lineup:
Robertson-Hintz-Pavelski
Benn-Seguin-Gurianov
Kiviranta-Peterson-Radulov
Kero-Faksa-Glendenning
Suter-Heiskanen
Lindell-Klingberg
Hanley-Hakanpaa
Oettinger
Holtby

Numbers

10

Seguin has 10 points (five goals, five assists) in 15 career games against his old team, the Bruins.

84-30-28

The Bruins have the best career points percentage against the Stars franchise of any NHL opponent. They also have points in 11 straight games (9-0-2) vs. Dallas.

21

Boston forward Brad Marchand has 21 points (10 goals, 11 assists) in 16 career games against the Stars, including two goals earlier this season.

He said it

"We have pride in that room. We've showed that. We'll battle back, and we know we have a tough opponent coming in here on Sunday. We are well aware we've lost two home games in a row, and we're well aware that we're going to have to put a much better effort on the ice Sunday night, and we're going to count on pride to do that." -- Bowness on how the team needs to respond after a 5-0 loss to Washington on Friday.
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This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.
Mike Heikais a Senior Staff Writer for DallasStars.com and has covered the Stars since 1994. Follow him on Twitter @MikeHeika.