Short-handed Stars set sights on .500

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This article was published 07/11/2016 (3493 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Lindy Ruff knows his Dallas Stars don’t look much like last season’s Central Division champions.

At least not yet, anyway.

His NHL club, currently treading water with a multitude of injuries and a 4-5-3 record, hasn’t been able to buy a break.

Sunday’s 4-3 overtime loss to the Blackhawks in Chicago was a case in point, as the Stars probably deserved a better fate.

The Dallas head coach doesn’t plan to dwell on the negatives. For much of the early part of the regular season, he’s been without the services of forwards Jason Spezza, Patrick Sharp, Ales Hemsky, Jiri Hudler, Mattias Janmark and Cody Eakin, which would be a crippling blow to most clubs.

Ruff has an eye to reaching the .500 mark or better by the time his roster shapes up. For now, though, it’s been one of his most challenging coaching jobs.

“Our goal is to try to get above that mark,” Ruff said via telephone Monday afternoon. “So I guess being at that mark would be acceptable. I feel the way we’ve played, we can overcome this. We can be better than that.”

The Stars currently have 36 per cent of last season’s goal production (97 of 265) on their injured list. Naturally, Ruff is hoping an injection of youth will help the club cope.

“We try to ignore it,” Ruff said of the manpower situation. “We’ve actually had real good play out of guys that have come up (from the minors). (Sunday) night, we got two goals from Gemel Smith. Those guys have done a nice job.

“We’re not going to score as much with that personnel out, but we’re still trying to create the same type of opportunities.”

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Ruff sees similarities to his team in tonight’s opponent. The 5-7-1 Jets have been erratic but tantalizing, with injury troubles of their own.

“To me, they’re trying to get depth of skill throughout the lineup a little bit like we were built and become a dangerous three- (or) four-line team,” said Ruff, whose Stars play the Jets for the third time this season.

“And we’ve seen that the first couple of times we’ve played them. It can come from various places and they’ve got some young skill that I think is gonna make a difference for them. You just need a little patience there.”

NOTES: Finnish NHL reporter Sami Hoffren says Jets forward Joel Armia will be out four to six weeks with damage to an MCL. No surgery will be required. The Jets have reported Armia’s injury as of the lower-body variety… Centre Bryan Little (lower body), right-winger Drew Stafford (upper body), defenceman Tyler Myers (lower body), defenceman Mark Stuart (lower body), left-winger Shawn Matthias (lower body) and centre Matthieu Perreault (upper body) are also listed on Winnipeg’s injury report… Stars centre Tyler Seguin has made a habit of tormenting the Jets. He has 23 points (13 goals) in 15 games as a member of the Stars against the Jets. He has also scored at least a point in all seven games at the MTS Centre, potting eight goals and 16 points over that span.

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @sawa14