AVS, STARS HAVE REVERSED ROLES
» A team sitting at 1-3-0 DALLAS took on a 4-1-0 team Saturday night at the American Airlines Center, which is pretty much how many hockey pundits had it before the season started.
They just didn’t know it would be the Dallas Stars looking for their second win of the season and the Avalanche looking to notch its fourth consecutive win to stay atop the Central Division.
The Avs had eight points through five games, tied with the St. Louis Blues for most in the division. It’s their best start to a season since 2013-14, when they started 5-0-0. Colorado won the division that year before falling to the Minnesota Wild in a classic seven-game first-round series.
On the other hand, the Stars are in the cellar of the Central Division at 1-3-0. After having an offseason that had expectations sky-high, the team has failed to put things together as they continue to figure things out under coach Ken Hitchcock.
The Stars’ lone win came when they went up 2-0 in the opening period against the Red Wings. They haven’t responded well to being hit first, something captain Jamie Benn acknowledged after Thursday’s loss to the Predators.
“When the other team gets a goal or gets momentum, we have to respond as a group,” Benn said. “They started to bring the pressure, and we just let them take it to us.”
The Avs entered Saturday 20-0 when leading after the first period and 4-0-0 when leading after the second.
Juggling act. Hitchcock tried a new combination on defense, pairing Marc Methot with John Klingberg. Esa Lindell had played the first four games with Klingberg while Methot had played with a combination of Jamie Oleksiak and Stephen Johns.
Hitchcock also moved Mattias Janmark onto a line with Jason Spezza and Brett Richie, while Remi Elie moved with Martin Hanzal and Devin Shore.
Footnotes. On the injury front, the Avalanche were without rookie Tyson Jost (bone bruise) but did have the services of Nathan Mackinnon, despite the center taking a stick to the eye area in Friday night’s win over Anaheim. … Patrik Nemeth spent the previous four seasons with the Stars. He was claimed off waivers by Colorado 11 days ago.