Great test awaits Stars in back-to-back finale against Blackhawks

Stars (40-27-4, 84 points) vs. Blackhawks (24-36-11, 59 points)

CHICAGO -- If teams are situationally motivated, the Stars should be on fire.
After losing what head coach Rick Bowness called the most disappointing game the team has played all year, he cautioned that if this team continues down that path, it'll miss the playoffs.
"If we play like that, we're going home in three weeks, it's as simple as that," Bowness said of the 11 games remaining to secure one of the wild card playoff spots in the West. "That's what I told them after the game. We play like that, three weeks from today, we're going home, if that's what we want."
That means Sunday's game in Chicago will be a great test. Bowness said what anyone says doesn't matter, only what they do - and this is a great chance to do something. While Vegas won Saturday to draw to within a tie in the standings, Nashville lost and is two points ahead in the first wild card.
Chicago is 26th in the league right now at 24-46-11 (.415). However, the Stars already have losses to bottom-four teams in the league, including defeats at the hands of New Jersey (.389) and Seattle (.361) in the past week.
If ever there was a time for action, this would seem to be it.
"We didn't play even close enough to how we should and how we can," said defenseman Esa Lindell, who returned from an upper-body injury. "It's a tight race to the playoffs, so we have to ramp it up again tomorrow."

What to watch

While Bowness said after Saturday's 3-1 loss to the Devils that Jake Oettinger isn't an issue, the young goalie's had some struggles in recent games.
Oettinger is 3-3-0 in his past six games, including losses to New Jersey, Seattle and Vancouver. Bowness said this is more of a team issue than a goaltending issue and Oettinger hasn't allowed more than three goals against in the past 11 games. Still, Oettinger said he would've liked to have played the game-winning goal by Nico Hischier better in the final two minutes.
"I tried to get my stick out there," he said. "If I could take it back, I probably would've just tried to stay back and play it differently. There's a minute left in the game, and you need your goalie to step up and make big saves, and I wasn't able to do that."
Oettinger is just 23, so he's learning about the pressure of a playoff race. But he clearly is the team's No. 1 goalie and he has the full confidence of the organization.
"Everything is amplified right now," he said when asked about the playoff race. "We know where we are in the standings. We know what we need to do. We didn't take care of business today, and we learn from it. That's all you can do at this point. We have a quick turnaround, so we have a good opportunity to redeem ourselves [Sunday]."

Lineup update

There's an expectation that Bowness will shake things up, adding Denis Gurianov and Thomas Harley in the lineup against the Blackhawks. Marián Studenič and Joel Hanley could be the ones coming out.
Here's a possible lineup:
Robertson-Hintz-Pavelski
Raffl-Benn-Gurianov
Namestnikov-Seguin-Glendening
Peterson-Faksa-Radulov
Suter-Heiskanen
Lindell-Klingberg
Harley-Hakanpaa
Oettinger
Wedgewood

Numbers

70

Patrick Kane has 70 points (30 goals, 40 assists) in 61 career games against the Stars. That's the second highest against any franchise (73 vs. Columbus).

28.7

Chicago ranks 31st in the NHL in average shots on goal per game at 29.7.

11

Chicago ranks tied for second in the NHL in overtime/shootout losses at 11 (9-11). Dallas is 14-4 in overtimes/shootouts this season.

He said it

"I didn't like the power play. They got one off of a faceoff. The power play is a reflection of our five-on-five. Our five-on-five play was terrible, so was the power play. I know they got a goal, but it was a won faceoff, a shot that found its way in."-- Bowness on going 1-for-6 on the power play against New Jersey
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.