StarPoints For 3/2 vs Los Angeles

1.)  Tuesday’s matchup is the fourth of six total matchups between the Dallas Stars and the Los Angeles Kings this season, and the first of three in the month of March. The Kings have won all three contests, but the last two have been decided in shootouts. Dating back to last season, six of the last nine contests between Dallas and Los Angeles have been decided in overtime or the shootout.
 
2.)  One of the Stars’ newest members, Brandon Segal, who was claimed off waivers from the Kings on Feb. 11, scored a goal and an assist in his Stars’ debut, a 3-0 win at Phoenix on Feb. 13. The 26-year-old native of Richmond, British Columbia, had one goal and one assist in 25 games this season with the Kings. Tonight’s game will be Segal’s first against his former team.

3.)  Marty Turco has played his best hockey of the year lately. In his last five starts leading up to the Olympic break, Turco went 3-1-1, allowing just five goals and recording two shutouts. Stars’ coach Marc Crawford said that Turco will start Tuesday’s game, and if he does, Turco will become the 57th goaltender to play in 500 NHL regular season games, and just the fifth to do it while playing every game of his career with one team. Here is the list:

Martin Brodeur – New Jersey Devils (1991-pres.) – 1057 GP
Mike Richter – New York Rangers (1989-2003) – 666 GP
Turk Broda – Toronto Maple Leafs (1936-1952) – 629 GP
Evgeni Nabokov – San Jose Sharks (1999-pres.) – 545 GP
Marty Turco – Dallas Stars (2000-pres.) – 499 GP
 
4.)  It will be the first game since the Olympic tournament for Stars’ captain Brenden Morrow, who won the gold medal on Sunday with Team Canada, as well as right wing Jere Lehtinen (Bronze Medal, Finland), left wing Loui Eriksson (Sweden) and defenseman Karlis Skrastins (Latvia). Lehtinen returns to Dallas with his fourth career Olympic medal after playing in his fifth Olympic Games. It was Eriksson’s first career Olympic tournament, and Skrastins’ third.
 
5.)  Los Angeles is sitting in fifth place in the Western Conference with 78 points (Dallas has 68), and much of the reason for that has been the play of 2010 Olympians like defenseman Drew Doughty (Canada), left wing Dustin Brown (USA), defenseman Jack Johnson (USA) and goaltender Jonathan Quick (USA). Doughty is 4th among NHL defensemen in scoring (11-34-45 points) while Quick leads all NHL goalies with 35 wins, playing 55 of a possible 61 games this season. Kings’ center Michal Handzus represented Slovakia, the team that lost to Finland in the Bronze Medal Game.