10 Games You Can’t Miss This Season

Alison Eldridge

If you’ve never attended a Stars game in person, it’s probably hard to understand why fans love it so much. The TV experience, while hosted by some of the best color analysts and play-by-play announcers in the league, leaves a lot to be desired. It seems to be nothing more than grown men running into each other chasing after a little black disc you often can’t even see or keep track of.

But as any fan will tell you, being in the building and feeling the energy of the game, watching the astonishing athleticism of everyone on the ice, and, perhaps most notably, hearing that goal horn immediately followed by Pantera’s “Puck Off” is, simply, addicting.

Let’s put it this way: there’s a reason season tickets in the lower and Platinum sections of the AAC are already sold out. It really is just that fun.

But with 41 games to choose from and a chance to see every other team in the league at least once, deciding which games to attend can be overwhelming.

These 10 easily top the list for the 2023-2024 season.

10) January 10, 2024 : Minnesota Wild

This won’t be the first time the Stars and Wild will see each other since the first round of the playoffs, but it’ll be the first time in the regular season they’ll see each other at the AAC. The last time the Wild was in Dallas, the Stars took Game 5 in stunning fashion, closing out the game with a 4-0 shutout. Add on to that the rivalry that’s been around since the Stars moved to Dallas, the level of physicality the Wild are sure to bring to the ice yet again, and the very heated social media exchanges between the fans of these two teams, and this is sure to be a good game. Does the Wild deserve to be higher on the list? Nope. Why? Because.

9) November 14, 2023 : Arizona Coyotes

A lot of people won’t agree with this take and having this team on the list at all, but let’s be honest, this team isn’t likely to be around for much longer, so take the opportunity to see it in person while you can. Arizona versus Dallas has historically been fun to watch, and with the Coyotes only getting college-level attendance numbers for their home games, they’re sure to bring a lot of energy to the ice just from feeling the energy of being in a major-league arena. The Coyotes will be back at the AAC again this season on March 20, 2024.

8) October 12, 2023 : St. Louis Blues

Opening night. What more needs to be said? First off, this game is sure to sell out and sell out fast, so if you have hopes of attending, be ready to jump when single-game tickets go on sale and be ready to pay more than you probably really want to. That aside, there’s nothing quite like attending the first game of the season. Both teams are amped up and ready to get the season started. The fans have been itching for hockey for months. Hockey’s finally back. These two teams have had an enjoyable rivalry for decades, reaching back to the Minnesota North Stars days. Timothy Lopez has an awesome piece on the past decade of match-ups between these two teams and even more insight into why this is going to be a great game to see in person. The Blues will come back to Dallas for the Stars’ fan appreciation night, and the last game of the regular season, on April 17, 2024.

7) November 18, 2023 : Colorado Avalanche

Colorado versus Dallas is yet another classic rivalry. With Avs fans being able to hop a quick flight to follow their team, there’s always a strong Colorado presence in the AAC. The Avs were expected to be a force in the playoffs last season, but were plagued with injuries, and some curious off-ice happenings for former Star Valeri Nichuskin, that the team couldn’t shake, resulting in their first first-round playoff exit since 2018. But with the memory of winning the Stanley Cup still fairly fresh in the minds of the Avs and Avs fans, it’s no doubt this season will see a team fighting hard to get back to the top. The Avs come back to the AAC on January 4th, 2024.

6) December 2, 2023 : Tampa Bay Lightning

There’s no denying the Stars have had the Lightning in the cross-hairs since the Game 6 Stanley Cup Final bubble hockey loss in 2020. The Stars haven’t managed to dial in on the Lightning though, winning only 3 of the past 12 games since that fateful night in Canada. By all rights, it doesn’t sound like this would be a fun game to go to at all. But if there’s one thing the Stars were notorious for doing last season, it was playing to the level of their competitors. And with the Lightning taking a shocking first round exit in the playoffs, this may be the season the Stars finally get the upper hand on the Lightning and get some sweet revenge for having to take second best just three years ago.

5) November 6, 2023 : Boston Bruins

Oh, Boston. The 2022-2023 team of broken records and broken hearts. Watching the Bruins break record after record in the regular season was incredible. There was no doubt this team was taking the Cup last year. And then they were out in the first round. But a lot changed for the Bruins in the off-season. The team’s captain, the beloved Patrice Bergeron, retired after 19 seasons with the team. Veteran center David Krejci also announced his retirement from the Bruins after 16 years in Boston. Tyler Bertuzzi, who had five goals and five assists in the playoffs, hit free agency and is now playing for Toronto. Dmitry Orlov, who had four goals and 21 assists in 30 games, left Boston for Carolina. In contrast, the team added the veteran presence of players like Kevin Shattenkirk and James van Reimsdyk. Will so many changes help or hinder the Bruins? Only time will tell, but no matter how these changes turn out for the Bruins, Boston versus Dallas tends to be a physical and highly enjoyable game. And after losing both regular season games to a team that ultimately left the playoffs in the first round, the Stars are sure to push for a different outcome this season.

4) February 13, 2024 : Carolina Hurricanes

The Hurricanes are simply fun to watch. There’s no divisional or even conference rivalry here, so there’s no extensive history or past between these two teams, but they both make the game enjoyable. The Stars have an amazing ability to entertain their fans on home ice above and beyond what many other teams do, and the Canes do the same. Both teams seem to have found that sweet spot between making money playing a sport and having fun while doing it. One team is going to lose, of course, but they’re both going to make sure it’s an entertaining show no matter who takes home the W. Their fans are fun. Their social media interactions are fun. It’s just an all-around good time.

3) January 6, 2024 : Nashville Predators

The Preds and the Stars have had a pretty healthy inter-division rivalry since the Stars moved from the Pacific division to the Central with the 2013 NHL realignment. But when the two faced off in the 2020 Winter Classic, that rivalry ignited and hasn’t let up. Much like for the Avs, Preds fans don’t have far to travel to support their squad, and many do, and do it with class and sportsmanship. The Stars beat the Preds in all 4 match-ups last season, and while the Preds missed the playoffs, they were only three points shy of nabbing the second wild card spot. Like the Bruins, the Preds made big moves in the off-season, including making 11 selections in the 2023 Draft, and most notably for Stars fans, grabbing up former Star Denis Gurianov. And like the Bruins, it’ll be interesting to see what impact all the new moves will mean for the Preds in 2023-2024. Plus, it’s not the only time the Preds will be in town. They come back to the AAC just six days later.

2) December 18, 2023 : Seattle Kraken

This will be the first time these two teams will see each other since the Stars ended the Kraken’s playoff run in Game 7 of the semi-finals. This game is sure to be intense. It doesn’t take looking at just the playoff battle to see how well these two teams match up, either. Outside of the playoffs, the two have met six times, with the Stars holding only a slight 4-2 edge over the Kraken. Half of those six games were decided by a single goal. The 2022-2023 season was a drastic shift from the team’s inaugural season when The Kraken ended the 2021-2022 season at the very bottom of the Western Conference. To see a team go from the absolute bottom of the entire conference to forcing a Game 7 in the Conference Semi-Final is astonishing. If that transition is any indication of what’s to come for the Kraken this season, the Stars are in for some fierce competition, and it’s going to be amazing to watch. The Kraken come back to Dallas again on April 13, 2024.

1) November 22, 2023 : Vegas Golden Knights

The one that got away. And then went on to win the Cup. It was the second time in as many years that the teams found themselves in the Conference Finals against each other. A lot went wrong for the Stars very quickly. As many Stars fans had come to loathe, the Stars lost games one and two by a single point in overtime. And then came game three. Jamie Benn took a bad penalty two minutes into the game that saw him suspended for games four and five. The Stars finished the first period down 0-3 and on their second goalie of the night, and just like that, the Stars were facing being swept in the Conference Final. Another aspect to the Stars’ struggle was Golden Knights goalie Adin Hill. The young goalie had never even played in a Stanley Cup playoff game until the second round when he became Vegas’ fifth goalie of the season. That’s a sharp contrast to what Stars net-minder Jake Oettinger had faced to that point. The Stars managed to hold on in games four and five, but the damage had been done. The Stars want this series back, and not just because they lost to the soon-to-be Stanley Cup Champions. There’s no doubt Benn wants this series back. There’s no doubt Oettinger wants this series back. And this game won’t be the first time the two teams see each other this season, but there’s no doubt the battle between these two teams is anywhere near over. The Knights come back to Dallas December 9, 2023.