Bowness: 'Every game at this point is a playoff atmosphere' for Stars

Stars (19-15-12, 50 points) at Red Wings (17-25-7, 41 points)

The beauty of playing the same team four times in a row is that emotions from one game can bleed into another.
The Stars on Tuesday beat Detroit 5-2. The Red Wings on Thursday came back and registered a 7-3 victory. Now it's time for the Stars to answer.
"We have to learn from this, because we are playing the same team on Saturday," Stars center Radek Faksa said after Thursday's game. "We knew they were going to come at us hard because we beat them at home."
That's part of the fun of the 2020-21 season. Teams are playing only within their division and playing the same opponents eight times in a season. This will be the eighth and final meeting between the Stars and Red Wings, who will likely go back to playing each other twice a season next year. So, Dallas will need to have both situational motivation in wanting to atone for Thursday's game, as well as understanding in the bigger picture that they're fighting for a playoff spot.
"We had some sloppy plays with the puck that cost us and we talked about it as a group that we have to be better, all of us from goalies to forwards to D," said winger Blake Comeau. "We're going to put that one behind us and move on."

In the meantime, of course, Nashville won Friday to push four points ahead of the Stars. Dallas has three games in hand, which means it can pick up an extra six points before the end of the season. But they have to win games to pick up those points, making Saturday's game pretty important.
"We've been dealing with that the last couple of weeks," Bowness said when asked if games like this are almost "must-win."
"We were 12 points back, we had to take that approach. We can't control what happens to the other teams, we have to focus on us. Every game is a playoff game and as you get closer to the end, every game becomes the most important game of the year. Tonight is. We understand we're four points back, we understand we have games in hand, we understand we have one more shot at Nashville. That being said, every game at this point is a playoff atmosphere."
And that's fine with the Stars. They want to challenge themselves and they want to face the pressure. It's what they signed up for, Bowness said. Among the key mistakes on Thursday were plays made by Anton Khudobin, Andrej Sekera, John Klingberg and Esa Lindell. Those are players who have the Stars fifth in the league in goals against average at 2.48.
"Listen we're 8-3-2 in our last 13 games and those were the most goals we've given up all year," Bowness said of the 7-3 defeat. "We gave them up because we gave up easy goals in terms of puck possession. We have to play Dallas Stars hockey, hard to play against. We take great pride on our ability to defend, we take great pride on our goals against and we take great pride in being very hard to play against.
"You move on, you just do," he added. "We dealt with it. The veterans that made the mistakes, they know they made the mistakes. They also know we have to control what we can control, and that's our attitude. We've got to be positive and we've got to be upbeat and we've got to move on."

Trying to stay fresh, Stars limit time on ice between games

The Stars had eight games postponed earlier in the season because of positive COVID tests and because of a winter weather storm in North Texas. Now, they are making up for those game and the schedule has been cram-packed. To help keep energy, the players are trying to stay off the ice as much as possible and keep their legs fresh.
That said, they also want to be sharp and sometimes need practice to do that.
Bowness said players had the option to skate on Friday afternoon or Saturday morning. He said many players skated on Friday, but that it was only about 15 minutes. So what can be accomplished in that time?
"Some of these guys in a game they don't play a lot and they're not touching the puck much, so we try to get as many puck touches as we can," Bowness said. "They're just high-tempo drills, skating, handling the puck, shooting the puck on the fly. It's just a lot of skill work."

As for who goes and who doesn't, Bowness said he leaves a lot of that to the individual.
"They know their bodies, and because of the grind of the schedule, they know when they should skate and when they shouldn't," Bowness said.
"Yesterday we had an optional, and a lot of them did skate, but it was only like 15 minutes. Today, most guys aren't skating. But they go back to the hotel and they have a stretch with (strength and conditioning coach Brad Jellis) just to get them going. We have our meeting at the hotel, we have a stretch at the hotel, and the guys that want to skat and go skate."

Khudobin gets start after early pull Thursday

Anton Khudobin will be in net for the Stars.
Khudobin allowed three goals in the first period Thursday, including a misplay of the puck that cost a late goal and led to him getting pulled.
Khudobin is 3-0-0 against the Red Wings this season (Jake Oettinger took the loss in relief on Thursday) with a 1.75 GAA and .918 save percentage.

By the numbers

5-2-0

Dallas is 5-2-0 against the Red Wings this season, but both losses have come at Little Caesars Arena.

6

Stars winger Jason Robertson has a six-game point streak in which he has tallied three goals and six assists for nine points. That's tied for the longest point streak by a rookie in the NHL this season.

34

Detroit has taken more tripping minors in the NHL (34) than any other team. Carolina is second with 30. Dallas is third at 26.

He said it

"He's seeing the ice really well, but the most important thing is his skating. He's using his legs and he's checking with his legs, he's creating offense with his legs, his skating. Being at center gives him a little bit more freedom that way, and he's taking advantage of it." -- Bowness on the importance of captain Jamie Benn, who has been shifted from left wing to center during the team's 6-1-2 run
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, and listen to his podcast.