DALLAS — Last season Adidas Jack Johnson Jersey , the Nashville Predators took three of the four meetings against the Dallas Stars, outscoring them 14-7.However, when the teams meet Saturday afternoon at American Airlines Center, it will be their first matchup of the season.“Yeah, they’re good in all facets of the game,” Stars rookie coach Jim Montgomery said of the Predators after practice Friday. “They’ve played together for a while. We’re going to have be physical and we’re going to have to be gritty, and we’re going to have to make it a tough game for them to have any kind of skating room.”Article continues below ...Dallas (9-6-1, 19 points) started its four-game homestand with a 4-3 win over San Jose on Thursday.However, that victory came at a price as standout defenseman John Klingberg was struck in the hand with a shot and after surgery Friday morning will miss at least four weeks.The Stars recalled defenseman Joel Hanley, who has 22 games of NHL experience from stints with Montreal and Arizona Adidas Erik Karlsson Jersey , from AHL Texas to help fill the sizable void left by Klingberg’s injury. Montgomery expects big things from Hanley, who played five games for the Coyotes last season.“We really liked him in camp. We love his decision making, he’s got high-end hockey sense and he’s got the feet to be able to break pucks out,” Montgomery said of Hanley.Montgomery also said the Stars will again be without defenseman Marc Methot (lower body) and forwards Brett Ritchie (illness), who will miss a fourth consecutive game, and Alexander Radulov (lower body), who is on injured reserve and has played just one of the past 10 games.Dallas is 6-2-0 at home. After going 3-2-1 during its season-long six-game road trip in the Eastern Conference that concluded earlier this week, the Stars are clearly happy to see home for a spell.“It was great to be home last night (Thursday),” Montgomery said. “The crowd was into the game and you could really feel the energy in the building. I think if last night’s game, if we’re on the road and we’re up 3-1 and they came back and tied it Adidas Patrick Maroon Jersey , I don’t know if we have that push coming, but I think our fans helped us there.”However, the Stars will face a tough opponent in the Predators (12-3-0, 24 points), who are 7-0-0 on the road this year after a 4-1 win at Colorado on Wednesday.Nashville’s Colton Sissons had a hat trick against Colorado and admits he can’t explain why the Predators have been unbeatable away from home so far this season.“We just stay focused and do our thing,” Sissons said. “I don’t know if being on the road and just thinking hockey helps us. We’ve just been playing confident and playing really sharp on the road so far.”Nashville also sports the NHL’s best goal differential at plus-20 and is currently two games into a five-game road trip. Being healthy in the playoffs is taking priority over seeding, with a few teams sitting their top players Saturday in the final game of the regular season.MVP front-runner Taylor Hall will sit out the New Jersey Devils‘ regular-season finale after the team clinched a playoff spot but can still move up the standings.New Jersey is resting Hall, fellow forwards Kyle Palmieri and Travis Zajac, and defenseman Sami Vatanen in Game 82 at Washington, and it isn’t alone in taking precautions. The Columbus Blue Jackets won’t play stars Artemi Panarin Adidas Tyler Bozak Jersey , Seth Jones, Zach Werenski and two-time Vezina Trophy-winning goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky in their final regular-season game at Nashville.Columbus coach John Tortorella told reporters he was ”absolutely not” trying to avoid facing the two-time defending Stanley Cup-champion Pittsburgh Penguins in the first round. New Jersey coach John Hynes similarly answered that giving Hall a break is more important after a grueling push to clinch the franchise’s first playoff berth since 2012.”We’re not looking to get in the playoffs and just be a Cinderella story,” Hynes said before his Devils faced the Metropolitan Division-champion Capitals on Saturday night. ”We’re looking to get in the playoffs and win, and (Hall is) a big part of that.”Hall, who is one goal short of reaching 40 for the first time in his career, said he’s cool with the decision to rest instead of taking a chance on the eve of the playoffs.”It’s a good time to get some rest and recuperate a little bit,” said Hall, who has 93 points in 76 games and is expected to be a finalist for the Hart Trophy. ”We’ve played a lot of hockey lately, and a lot of the stuff in the standings is out of our hands other than our game.”No Eastern Conference first-round matchups have been determined going into the final weekend of the season. The only series that’s set is the Winnipeg Jets facing the Minnesota Wild out West as the second- and third-place teams in the Central Division.There are still numerous combinations of matchups among the seven teams in the East that have clinched, with the Philadelphia Flyers and Florida Panthers still in the running for the final spot. Matchups can make a big difference in how the playoffs go Adidas Chad Johnson Jersey , but players and coaches are careful not to look like they’re favoring one opponent over another.”I learned a long time ago that you don’t wish for certain opponents,” Devils defenseman Ben Lovejoy said. ”It can backfire very quickly.”The Tampa Bay Lightning certainly aren’t playing that game. With a chance to clinch first place in the Atlantic Division and avoid facing the Toronto Maple Leafs in the first round, the Lightning are expected to start backup Louis Domingue in net at Carolina instead of Andrei Vasilevskiy, who leads the NHL in wins.The Boston Bruins, who could catch the Lightning, are going with backup Anton Khudobin against Ottawa, but they also play Sunday night against Florida in a game that was rescheduled because of snow.—