Stars Come Home for Three in Four Nights: Winnipeg Thursday, Buffalo Saturday, Florida Sunday
Dallas is 10-5-2 and second in the Central after Saturday's 4-3 win over San Jose — and after three dark nights at the American Airlines Center, the Stars play Thursday, Saturday and Sunday without leaving home.
The Stars have the building to themselves this week — they just have to wait for it. Dallas (10-5-2, 22 points, second in the Central Division) does not play Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday; the American Airlines Center ice is covered for the Mavericks tonight, and the Stars' next puck drop is Thursday. They arrive at the break in good shape: a 6-5 win at Washington on Nov. 3, a 2-1 shootout loss at Columbus on Nov. 5 that still paid a point, and a 4-3 home win over the San Jose Sharks on Saturday night — two wins and a point out of the week's three games, behind a Minnesota team (12-3-4, 28 points) that leads the division.
Then the week compresses. Winnipeg comes to the AAC on Thursday (7 p.m. CT, Prime Video and KDFI) — the Jets are 7-8-3 and sixth in the Central with 17 points, the kind of divisional game that moves the standings twice. Buffalo follows on Saturday night (7 p.m. CT), and Florida closes the stand on Sunday (7 p.m. CT) in a game the NHL has put on its national-television list for the week. Three home games in four nights, all against Eastern or divisional opposition, with no travel between them — the softest landing a compressed stretch can have.
What the stand decides is whether Saturday's form holds. Dallas took five of six available points last week with its goaltending split — Jake Oettinger in the Washington and San Jose wins, Casey DeSmith in the Columbus shootout loss — and the home crowd gets all three looks this week. After Sunday, the road resumes hard: back-to-back games at Vegas on Nov. 17 and 19. The desk's game files follow each night within 45 minutes of the final horn, on the standing game-night cadence.
