Gameday Preview: Texas Stars at San Antonio Rampage

Texas Stars 8-5-0-1, 17 pts #4 Pacific Division

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San Antonio Rampage 8-1-4-0, 20 pts #1 Pacific Division

November 17th at 10:30 AM

AT&T Center, San Antonio, TX

With 14 games between the two teams this season, at least one of them had to be a kids' game. The San Antonio Rampage will welcome gaggles of screaming school children for a brunch-time matchup against the Texas Stars.

(Credit: Christina Shapiro/Texas Stars)

This morning's game will also feature the return of Patrick Bordeleau to the lineup. Bordeleau was suspended for three games after he boarded Mattias Backman in the Stars' November 7th game against the Rampage. Backman is still out with a concussion following the hit. Bordeleau played in the next day's game but was then suspended for the hit.

Texas got the better of the Rampage in every way but the final score, it seemed, on Sunday. They need to make sure they aren't distracted by Bordeleau's antics, if there are any, or tricked into getting a bit too aggressive in revenge.

They will be aided by the return of Curtis McKenzie to the AHL. The winger was in Dallas but on injured reserve for the past few weeks. With the return of Patrick Eaves and Travis Moen, McKenzie was assigned. Coach Laxdal now has an embarrassing amount of offensive talent in his hands. Texas vaulted 47 shots on San Antonio on Sunday and 34 on Stockton on Saturday. At 35.36 shots per game, they lead the league and are, in fact, averaging a full 1.5 shots per game more than the next closest team (Ontario, 33.86).

The fact is that Texas has been doing a lot of the right things but hasn't been getting the bounces and getting rewarded for it. PDO is a 'fancy stat' or 'advanced stat' that attempts to quantify luck. The league average for PDO is 1000 always (just like IQ is always average of 100 for a population). A team with a lower PDO is having bad luck; a team with a high PDO is having good luck. Take a guess what the Stars' PDO was for the past two games.

918.

So, yea, Texas hasn't been getting the bounces in any way. I didn't run the numbers for the whole league but it's reasonable to say that the Stars had some of the worst luck in the league this weekend. Chalk it up to that and keep plowing ahead. Good chance for a recovery against a good team with suspect goaltending this morning.

Stars injury/call up report:
Elie (day-to-day upper body)
Backman (concussion)

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