Stars, Kings ready to play after four days off

As strange as it is for the Stars to have four days between games at any stretch in the season, it's even more strange this week as the Stars and Thursday's opponent _ the LA Kings _ have also have not played since Saturday.

"Very rarely do you see both teams having four days off, so you should see two well rested teams," Stars coach Marc Crawford said. "We'll see which coaches have screwed up their teams the most.''

That drew a nice chuckle from the media, but it is a challenge to keep things going. The Stars brought in Jack Bowkus to run some skill drills and worked on their shootouts again. Still, four days between games, a trip to California this afternoon and a start on their body clock that will be 9:30 p.m. Thursday has to be concerning. Crawford said the team was aware of the challenge.

``We don't get a great opportunity to have to three practices in a row, we don't get a great opportunity to work on our systems play, but this week we have,'' Crawford said. ``From that standpoint, it's good because it serves as a refresher course for us. I am sure L.A. is doing many of the same things. They are playing with such great confidence right now."

The Kings are 10-3-0 and are unbeaten at home this season (6-0-0). The Kings were 5-1-0 against the Stars last season and beat the Stars 5-2 in the only meeting this season.

Willie Mitchell (wrist) and Alexei Ponikarovsky (hand) are out for the Kings, but Drew Doughty has been back for two games since missing time with a concussion.