DALLAS — With the Stars and Avalanche both having ground to make up to claim a playoff spot, Dallas coach Lindy Ruff on Tuesday morning addressed the notion that they’re already in a playoff run.
“I’m afraid that already started six, seven weeks ago for us, and I’m pretty sure it’s started for them, too,” Ruff said. “When you get that far behind, it’s desperation.”
Going into Tuesday’s game, the Stars were 13-6-2 in their past 21, the Avalanche 11-5-3 in its past 19.
Feeling Johnson’s pain. Defenseman Jan Hejda again played in a pairing with Zach Redmond against the Stars as the Avalanche continued with the approach of plugging Redmond — previously a healthy scratch — into the injured Erik Johnson’s spot rather than extensively juggle the three pairings.
Hejda said he had been aware that Johnson, who often sat out practice recently, had been hurting.
“He was kind of up and down physically,” Hejda said. “He would feel good for a few games and then he would feel bad for a few games. … I was able to see and feel when he was in pain and when he was not.
“I talked to him a little bit about it, too, and he was trying really hard to extend his playing before surgery. But the last few games I had the feeling that he needed to do something, and I think at the all-star break was a good time to do that.”
Attendance by the numbers. Through Tuesday, the Stars were 19th in the 30-team NHL in home attendance, averaging 17,104, and the Avalanche was 23rd, at 15,996.
That certainly isn’t a tarps-across-upper-section levels common in some “hotbed” NHL cities in the not-so-ancient past, and Dallas has had eight sellouts in 27 openings this season, Colorado six in 25 home games. Yet both markets have slowed down at the box office since the automatic sellout days of elite teams.
Dallas’ sellout streak ended at 238 games in 2004, while Colorado’s ended at 487 in 2006.
