Gameday Preview: Texas Stars v. San Antonio Rampage

Texas Stars 0-0-0-0, - pts #- Pacific Division

v.

San Antonio Rampage 0-0-0-0, - pts #- Pacific Division

October 10th at 7:00 PM

Cedar Park Center, Cedar Park, TX

For the seventh season, the Texas Stars will take the ice at Cedar Park Center. This time, as many times before, they will face a familiar foe in name. This go-around, it might not be as familiar as far as personnel.

Over the summer, the Rampage switched affiliations, taking on prospects from the Colorado Avalanche. For the past several seasons, the Florida Panthers had been the club's NHL affiliate. Fans at the preseason games got a preview of what the Stars will see for 14 more games this season in terms of their lineup. Last Sunday's game was closer to the lineup we'll see tonight for both teams than what was on display on Friday.

One name to watch for all year will be the man in net: Calvin Pickard. He's a highly touted prospect and finally starting coming into his own last year with Lake Erie. After two years of approiximately 50-50 win percentages, Pickard earned a 23-17-9 record for the Monsters and even played 16 games for the Avalanche. He'll get rolled out regularly for the Rampage as the Avs look to hone his skills and place him behind Semyon Varlamov in the long term.

One change you'll notice to the format of this article is that the 'place' is now divisional, not by conference. The realignment this summer put Texas in the Pacific Division with San Antonio and changed the playoff format to match the NHL's division ranking. Top four teams in each division make the playoffs with no cross over. It's gonna get hateful.

John Muse starts in net for Texas.

Stars injury/call up report:
Campbell (call up/injury)

Website: sarampage.com
Blog (unofficial): Rampage with Tony U.
Blog (unofficial): Runnin' With The Herd
Twitter: @SARampage
Twitter: @DanWeissPBP (play-by-play for SA)