How the Stars are preparing for Game 82 — a possible Western Conference clincher

Six months later, and it all comes to a close Wednesday. The Stars will play in their final regular-season game — Game 82 against the St. Louis Blues.

It’s a game that could mean a lot or nothing at all depending on some external factors.

To control their own fate, the Stars need to earn at least one point against the Blues to clinch the Western Conference regular-season title — their first since 2015-16. That would guarantee them home-ice advantage through the first three rounds of the playoffs.

After Tuesday’s victory over Calgary, the Vancouver Canucks would need to win their last game — Thursday’s against the Winnipeg Jets — and need the Stars to lose in regulation Wednesday to jump them in the standings.

Even if Game 82 carries no weight in the Western Conference standings, the Stars say it still does for them.

“We’ve got one singular focus right now, and that’s winning tomorrow and winning the conference,” Stars head coach Pete DeBoer said.

DeBoer said his staff are preparing for all situations behind the scenes. That could mean a variety of lineups depending on what happens in the Vancouver game Tuesday night. But for multiple reasons beyond the standings, it’s an important game.

Wednesday’s contest could be the Stars’ only in over a week. Their last game was Saturday against the Kraken, and the playoffs don’t begin until this coming Saturday, but Dallas isn’t guaranteed to play that day. They may not see the ice again until Sunday or even Monday.

As important as rest is this time of year, DeBoer is trying to get his players — and especially goalie Jake Oettinger — into a playoff rhythm.

“I think you go into the last game preparing for playoffs,” Tyler Seguin said. “You want to have proper habits as a team and as an individual. With the schedule this year, I think for a lot of teams, there’s a lot of time off before Game 1, so you want to stay as upbeat as you can.”

That will factor into DeBoer’s decision on whether to rest players. If the game is still the conference clincher, he may be less inclined to make any changes to the lineup. If it’s not, then Ty Dellandrea could give someone like Seguin a night of rest.

But then there’s the injured players — Evgenii Dadonov and Jani Hakanpää. DeBoer announced Tuesday that Hakanpää would not be available Wednesday.

“I think there’s certain guys I would be concerned about. I think with him I’m not just because of his experience and his professionalism,” DeBoer said. “He understands his role and what we need him to do really well.”

But Dadonov could be available for the first time since Feb. 10 when he suffered a lower-body fracture. DeBoer has said for over a week that he hopes to get Dadonov in a game before the playoffs begin. That’s a much easier decision if Wednesday’s game doesn’t matter than if it does.

The Stars and the coaching staff have repeatedly said they haven’t been able to celebrate the accolades from this historic regular season because their sights are set on much bigger goals, but home ice advantage through the first three playoff rounds is a massive achievement.

Up until Monday night, there was the possibility that eight different Western Conference teams would pass the 100-point mark this season. After Nashville and Los Angeles lost, there could be six now with those two finishing at a max of 99. That’s still more than the Eastern Conference’s five.

“Getting in is really tough. Earning home ice advantage in any round, never mind through the first three rounds, is really tough,” DeBoer said. “I’m proud of our resiliency to stick with it. It was only three or four weeks ago when we were third in the division, and we were potentially looking at starting on the road in the first round. I thought we found another level down the stretch. We want to carry that into the playoffs.”

While the Stars may have a preferred opponent between Los Angeles, Vegas and Nashville for the first round, the road to the Stanley Cup Finals is as difficult as ever. Any advantage they can get will help.

Whether they’re playing for home ice Wednesday or just keeping their game sharp, Dallas will enter Game 82 with the same mindset they’ve had all season long, knowing the magnitude of what they can accomplish but ignoring it until the summer rolls around.

“We’ve felt like we have a special group and obviously a very deep team since training camp. As the year goes on, I think us as players, you don’t really want to reflect too much,” Seguin said. “Those are the things that, in the summer, you can kind of sit back and judge your year as an individual and as a team with your bobber in the water fishing. But until that point, you’re focused on the next game.

“It feels like Tuesday. We just had a good practice after a couple of days off and are getting prepared for tomorrow.”

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