Some might think that the smell of elephant feces emanating from TD Garden this week is a result of the Bruins recent play, but it turns out "The Greatest Show on Earth" is in town and the "mediocre show on ice" is on the road. The Bruins will travel to Dallas tonight to take on the Stars before heading to Phoenix to play the Coyotes. The B's will try to bounce back from a disappointing opening home stand (2-3-0). Meanwhile, the Stars will try to do something other than lose in OT or the shootout (2-0-3).

There were plenty of fireworks last time these two teams met almost a year ago on November 1, 2008 when they combined for 146 PIMs. Two of Dallas' main instigators in last years donnybrook will not be in the lineup tonight. Dallas cut ties with Sean Avery and Steve Ott is (conveniently) hurt. Matty Niskanen is still around though and I'm sure Jack Edwards can't wait for someone to re-arranged his face to the point where he "isn't a pretty little boy anymore".

Know Your Enemy

Dallas Stars (2-0-3)

Leading Goal Scorer:

Goaltending:

Projected Lines

Injury Report:

Bruins

Dennis Wideman: Out (Shoulder)

Stars

Steve Ott: Out Indefinitely (Oblique)

Mike Modano: Out Indefinitely (Ribs)

Warren Peters: Out (Fractured Orbital Bone)

Jere Lehtinen: Questionable (Rest)

Notes:

- Line (as of 6:00 PM on Thursday): Boston +105 Dallas -125

- Marty Turco is scheduled to start for the Stars and I would expect Tim Thomas to be back in goal for the B's.

- The Stars are currently having a promotion called Ott-toberfest. No word on if that t-shirt comes with a warning from the Surgeon General advising against wearing it in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

- Claude Julien shuffled lines this week, promoting Michael Ryder to the top line.

- Dennis Wideman (shoulder) did not make the trip with the team.

- I am going away this weekend, but I have scheduled previews and open threads to go up on the site for both games this weekend. Unfortunately, I won't be able to recap the games until Sunday. The open threads are scheduled to start half an hour before gametime (8:00 for the Stars game and 8:30 for the Coyotes game).

Today's Obligatory Embarrassing Stars Fan YouTube Video