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The Dallas Stars will be eager to get back on track when they open a four-game homestand against the Los Angeles Kings on Friday night.

The Stars didn’t like the way they competed in a 6-4 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday, a poor way to close out a six-game road trip that was separated by the two-week break for the 4 Nations Face-Off.

“I like the fact that we’re not happy,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said. “We expect to win every night. I think the lesson (against the Blue Jackets) is we just didn’t play well enough to win.”

The Stars came out of the break last Saturday and looked smooth in a 4-2 win at the New Jersey Devils. Dallas then received a hat trick from Jason Robertson the following day in a 4-3 win against the New York Islanders.

The Stars then took on the Blue Jackets, a team that’s battling to make the playoffs for the first time since 2020, and Columbus scored two goals in the first five minutes and never looked back.

“Three games in four nights, but no excuses,” Stars forward Mavrik Bourque said. “We’ve got to be better and I’m sure we’re going to bounce back.”

Like the Kings, the Stars have played extremely well at home this season, owning a 20-6-1 record on their own ice. The loss in Columbus should be a distant memory by the time Dallas plays in front of its own fans.

“That’s behind us, and now it’s about how we respond,” Dallas center Matt Duchene said of the Columbus game. “We want to get back and establish the game we’ve had there. I’m sure we’ll correct some of the stuff we did (against Columbus). We’ve got to be better, and we’ll attack that this week.”

The Kings arrive in Dallas riding a seven-game point streak (5-0-2), but still looking up at the Vegas Golden Knights and Edmonton Oilers in the Pacific Division, and with not much separation over the wild-card teams.

Los Angeles also posted two straight victories coming out of the two-week break before losing 3-2 in overtime to the visiting Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday night.

“I think we’ve just got to be more consistent with our game right from the start, throughout the 60 minutes,” Los Angeles forward Adrian Kempe said. “We don’t have to be perfect every game, but we can’t have a really good 20 minutes and 40 minutes OK.”

Kings coach Jim Hiller was hoping his team would play a solid game in front of their home fans before setting out on a three-game road trip.

“We could’ve got two (points), and probably the other nights, maybe we didn’t deserve two,” Hiller said. “The results, you hope that they balance themselves a little bit, so the sting is probably a little bit less because of what we probably deserved. … We’ve got to play better, I agree.”

Kings defenseman Drew Doughty missed the game against Vancouver with a lower-body injury. It’s possibly related to the ankle surgery he underwent in September after breaking his ankle in a preseason game.

He is considered day-to-day and was expected to travel with the team to Dallas on Friday.

–Field Level Media