Fansided

NHL schedule release 2018: 5 Stars games we’re looking forward to

By C.L. Kohuss

SAN JOSE, CA - APRIL 03: Jamie Benn #14 of the Dallas Stars looks on during the game against the San Jose Sharks at SAP Center on April 3, 2018 in San Jose, California. (Photo by Rocky W. Widner/NHL/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Jamie Benn
SAN JOSE, CA - APRIL 03: Jamie Benn #14 of the Dallas Stars looks on during the game against the San Jose Sharks at SAP Center on April 3, 2018 in San Jose, California. (Photo by Rocky W. Widner/NHL/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Jamie Benn /
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SAN JOSE, CA – APRIL 18: Corey Perry #10 of the Anaheim Ducks skates against the San Jose Sharks during the third period in Game Four of the Western Conference First Round during the 2018 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at SAP Center on April 18, 2018 in San Jose, California. (Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)
SAN JOSE, CA – APRIL 18: Corey Perry #10 of the Anaheim Ducks skates against the San Jose Sharks during the third period in Game Four of the Western Conference First Round during the 2018 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at SAP Center on April 18, 2018 in San Jose, California. (Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images) /

3. Anaheim Ducks @ Dallas

Date: Saturday, October 13

Time: 8:00 p.m., E.T.

All three of these teams’ games are marked down for next year, but only one can join this list. There’s something intense about these matchups and so here we are. While Dallas has moved on from the Pacific Division and no longer employs Anaheim as a true “rival,” it doesn’t make their matchups any less bitter, heated and war-like. It isn’t so much about the penalty minutes or racking up the carnage as far as fighting majors (though Jamie Benn and Corey Perry often go at it), it’s simply the fact that neither team likes one another at all, for whatever reason.

It could go back to when they were actually divisional rivals, and it’s carried over for years. Or maybe because both clubs have agitators who are a terrible mix when on the ice at the same time. Poison, if you will. The stuff that makes hockey fun.

Perhaps the Ducks don’t like anyone to begin with and drag Dallas into a street fight every time out. Personally it goes back at least to when Corey Perry tried to turn Sergei Zubov into a human advertisement by boarding him on an atrocious hit, but that’s me. And also when they handed Dallas a scorcher of a playoff loss some time ago. These wounds take time to heal.

Whatever the case, these games are always insanely fun. As a Dallas fan, the Ducks are pretty much the pits. It was great to see them swept in the postseason by an in-state club. Sorry not sorry. Can’t wait.

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