Gameday Preview: Texas Stars v. San Jose Barracuda

Texas Stars
4-3-0-1, 9 pts, 0.563
#4 Pacific Division
v.San Jose Barracuda
3-4-0-0, 6 pts, 0.429
#7 Pacific Division
October 28th at 7:00 PM
H-E-B Center at Cedar Park, Cedar Park, TX

All things considered, it's very good news Texas isn't playing the San Diego Gulls two nights in a row here in Cedar Park. After last night's unbelievable sequence of events resulted in two ejections for the Gulls and Texas losing a top offensive player to a one-sided fight, the Stars move on to another opponent.

San Jose won the division a year ago, putting up a blistering .699 points percentage. They knocked off the Heat and the Gulls in the division only to fall to the eventual champion, Grand Rapids, in the Western Conference Finals. This year, they've had an uneven start, unable to string together more than two wins in a row. Troy Grosenick, who was unbeatable last year (30-10-2, .926, 2.04) has become more pedestrian this season (2-2-0, .860, 3.83).

(Credit: Texas Stars)
San Jose is, quite interestingly, a team that has a lot of similarities to the Stars. They're having trouble keeping the puck out of the net. They're struggling on the power play (10%) and on the PK (82.5%).

On the Texas side, another veteran will check in tonight for Dowling. Thompson's addition to the lineup compensated for French's injury. Texas has players in reserve, of course, but couldn't dress them because of the veteran rule.

Stars injury/call up report:
Elie (call up)
French (lower body)
Dowling (upper body)

Barracuda Web Resources:
Website: sjbarracuda.com
Twitter: @SJbarracuda

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