The Dallas Stars have finally won a road game this season, but they still have some tough battles ahead to get to where they need to be, starting tonight in Toronto.
The Toronto Maple Leafs and the Dallas Stars already played once this season and the Leafs came out on top.
However, there’s one glaring difference in tonight’s game: the absence of Auston Matthews.
Matthews was injured over the weekend and is set to miss at least a month as his shoulder recovers.
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He missed a quarter of the season last year, and some of that was due to another shoulder injury that was reportedly similar to this one. Shoulder injuries can be chronic, but this was to his other one.
Matthews isn’t the only injury that’ll have a major impact on this game, as Alexander Radulov will be missing in action again tonight. It’s unfortunate that he was only back for one game, but hopefully he’ll be back quicker this time.
Tonight will be the first time Roman Polak and Connor Carrick will be back in Toronto after their departures. Carrick is still injured and won’t play, but with both him and Johns missing, Polak will be in.
Speaking of playing former teams, Anton Khudobin will get the start tonight, but Montgomery said he’ll get the game in Boston next week as well. That game against his old club is the first half of a back-to-back, so it’s logical that he’d get one of the starts, but it’s nice to see Montgomery let him play against the Bruins.
Game Information
Toronto Maple Leafs (8-4-0) at Dallas Stars (6-5-0)
6:00 PM CT – Scotiabank Arena – Toronto, ON
Home TV: FOX Sports Southwest (Josh Bogorad and Daryl Reaugh)
Away TV: TSN4 (Gord Miller and Chris Cuthbert)
Home Radio: Sportsradio 1310 AM and 96.7 FM The Ticket (Josh Bogorad and Daryl Reaugh)
Away Radio: Sportsnet 590 The Fan (Joe Bowen and Jim Ralph)
Online Streaming: NHL.tv, Fubo.tv
Last Season vs. Toronto: 0-1-1
This Season vs. Toronto: 0-1-0
Dallas Stars Projected Line-Up
Devin Shore – Tyler Seguin – Mattias Janmark
Jamie Benn – Jason Spezza – Valeri Nichushkin
Tyler Pitlick – Radek Faksa – Blake Comeau
Gemel Smith – Jason Dickinson – Brett Ritchie
Esa Lindell – John Klingberg
Marc Methot – Miro Heiskanen
Julius Honka – Roman Polak
Dallas Stars Injury Report
Connor Carrick: Carrick is still injured from the game against the Red Wings, and there’s no update yet on when he might be back, but he’s not on IR at this point.
Martin Hanzal: Hanzal is still on IR for probably another month or so.
Stephen Johns: Johns won’t be back tonight as he’s still on IR, but he’s at least traveling on the road trip with the team.
Alexander Radulov: Radulov is back out again tonight.
Toronto Maple Leafs Injury Report
Auston Matthews: Matthews injured his left shoulder and will be on IR until December.
The only other roster player missing for the Leafs is William Nylander, who is not injured, but he is still in a contract holdout for the foreseeable future.
With Radulov injured once again, the Stars have their work cut out for them, but at least they finally got their first win and can work on moving forward with that hurdle cleared.