DALLAS- Yes, it appears the National Hockey League schedule-maker is a bit of a Grinch, because there are certainly better places than the Dallas to get your jolly on.

Nothing against the city, but the team is tough to handle, which Calgary will find out Thursday night.

When you're the Flames and you're lurching toward the Christmas break, the very last thing you need is a meeting with the Stars, merely the No. 2 team in the Western Conference and one of the loop's hardest-hitting outfits.

Steve Ott is the last thing you want under your tree. Or under your skin.

And Adam Burish is no one's elf.

The Flames are losers of three straight and have scored just once in each of those contests.

The Flames are a season-worst four games under .500.

Adding to insult - the Stars are 12-3-2 at American Airlines Center.

"We have to use it as a game to go into the break feeling good about ourselves," said Calgary defenceman Mark Giordano. "In our minds, we have to say, 'We're going to win this last one,' and go from there. And try to come back from the break and get on a big roll.

"We have one game in the next . . . five, six days - we have to bring all of our energy (Thursday). It's going to come. We're going to break out of this little scoring slump we're in. We are doing a lot of good things. It's just one of those things."

The Flames are mired in 14th spot in the Western Conference.

"Right now, we look at every game the same way - we need to win it," says Ales Kotalik, pointless in eight contests this winter. "We're not even going game by game, we're going period by period and shift by shift. That's how we have to approach it. That process, climbing up and getting points, it starts with the little things, the little periods of time. Like I say, every shift, every period counts.

"If we do that right, the outcome's going to come."

Brent Sutter agrees.

The Flames coach wants his team to remain determined.

"You just have to stay with it," Sutter says. "There's nothing easy about it, there's nothing that's going to be easy about it. We have to stay positive and continue to stay together. That's the biggest thing - you've got to keep pushing and keep pushing together and make sure we handle everything the right way. Hey, it's adversity . . . and how you deal with it. We just have to look at ourselves and take care of it ourselves. That's the only way we can get out of this. The only way we can help ourselves is by staying together as a group.

"We can't get off our game. The guys can't get down."

After Thursday's game, the Flames are idle until Dec. 27 when the Buffalo Sabres come calling. New Year's Eve, they face the visiting Colorado Avalanche.

New Year's Day, the Flames are in Edmonton.

For now, though, the focus is on the Stars, one of the league's surprise success stories.

"The whole conference is tight," says Curtis Glencross. "We're going to have to go into Dallas with our heads up, take the positives (from Tuesday's 3-1 loss in Columbus), and get the two points there. Then after that, it's time to take a couple days off, a couple days' rest with families, then it's crunch time - back to work for us. Otherwise, we're going to be on the outside looking in again. None of us want to be in that situation."