Dallas Stars Set Up For Defensive Showdown Tonight vs. STL

The Dallas Stars dove into the preseason on Tuesday night and did not necessarily look the way they wanted to. But when the majority of your starters are on the bench, are you really expecting a win?

More From Blackout Dallas – Dallas Stars Taking Awkward Look To Lineup vs. FLA

The Stars fell to the Florida Panthers on Tuesday night by a final score of 3-2. The game went to overtime though considering the NHL wanted to give all teams the ability to test out the new 3-on-3 overtime format. The Stars ended up scoring early in the overtime, which would have counted as a third goal. So even though there was never supposed to be an overtime, the Stars still finished with a tie?

Anyways, tonight the Dallas Stars will step back into the box for round two, and this time it is against a Central division foe. The Stars will travel to St. Louis to take on the Blues in a preseason matchup tonight, with puck drop scheduled for 7:00 PM.

The offense will look similar to the one that played for Dallas on Tuesday in regards to four or five NHL starters and the rest being prospects.

The goaltending will look different, as Kari Lehtonen is expected to play the entire game tonight with Maxime Lagace backing him up. Head coach Lindy Ruff told Stars Inside Edge that he wanted to play the two veteran goalies in some preseason games, and that he wanted them both to participate in the entire game.

“I’d rather see a guy play a whole game then a guy go in halfway through, and they say, ‘I sat there for 30 minutes or an hour-and-a-half.’ I think that is tougher on a goalie to evaluate than up and running for a whole game,” Ruff said.

While the offense is primarily youth and the goaltending has a veteran presence, the defensive starters tonight are definitely going to be performing to their very best.

Tonight, the Dallas Stars will start Ludwig Bystrom, Mattias Backman, Jordie Benn, Jamie Oleksiak, Stephen Johns, and Patrik Nemeth. It was bound to happen, and it is finally here.

Besides Bystrom and Backman who are considered “door knockers” but not quite to the NHL level yet, the other four defenders are all in the same fight. This fight is for the six starting spots on the Dallas Stars roster. Each player on this list is deemed “NHL ready” and has a valid argument for why they should remain at the NHL level for the coming year.

Only problem is, the Stars have five others not playing tonight that are in the same struggle. With the only certain lockdown players for the opening night roster being Jason Demers, Alex Goligoski, Johnny Oduya, and John Klingberg, there leaves a lot of room for debate. Those last two spots are very sacred in the eyes of each of these players, and they are going to have to outperform their teammates if they want them.

It’s rather disappointing that there will be no broadcast or stream of this game, because you will most assuredly not want to miss the battle that is set to ensue on the blue line. Here is the projected lineup for tonight:

Valeri Nichushkin – Jason Spezza – Colton Sceviour

Mattias Janmark – Travis Morin – Patrick Eaves

Curtis McKenzie – Vernon Fiddler – Branden Troock

Remi Elie – Cory Kane – Matej Stransky

Jordie Benn – Ludwig Bystrom

Patrik Nemeth – Mattias Backman

Jamie Oleksiak – Stephen Johns

Kari Lehtonen

Training camp did not leave the Dallas Stars with a clear enough picture of their six starters, so we will have to hope that tonight helps clean things up. Make sure to follow @MikeHeika and @StarsInsideEdge on Twitter tonight for game updates, or you can simply follow the box score on the Dallas Stars app.

Next: Will Jordie Benn Start For The Dallas Stars On Opening Night?

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