The Dallas Stars have a matinee game today, and they’re looking at an uphill battle against the Central’s best team.
Not only are the Predators fierce competitors, but the Dallas Stars will also have to play without John Klingberg.
The absolute last thing the Stars needed was another defenseman injury, but that’s what they got on Thursday night.
Now, the already-decimated defense will have a bottom pairing of Dillon Heatherington and Joel Hanley, neither of whom were in the top eight for this team at the start of the season.
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Hanley was recalled from the Texas Stars to replace Klingberg on the roster after Klingberg had surgery yesterday. Klingberg will be out for at least four weeks, but hopefully Hanley isn’t needed until then, especially as his recall leaves the Texas Stars in a bad spot with their defensive line-up too.
Connor Carrick, Marc Methot, and Stephen Johns are all potentially on shorter time tables than Klingberg, but there’s nothing concrete about any of their injuries right now.
Miro Heiskanen is going to take on a lot of Klingberg’s duties, including on the first power play unit, and he has Esa Lindell to provide some solid help, but the rest of the line-up gets dicey quickly. They can do some good work, but the Stars are going to need to turn up the offense to help compensate. Hopefully Alexander Radulov can be back soon to provide an extra offensive boost, but no word on when that might be.
Game Information
Nashville Predators (12-3-0) at Dallas Stars (9-6-1)
1:00 PM CT – American Airlines Center – Dallas, TX
Home TV: FOX Sports Southwest (Josh Bogorad and Daryl Reaugh)
Away TV: FOX Sports Tennessee (Willy Daunic and Chris Mason)
Home Radio: Sportsradio 1310 AM and 96.7 FM The Ticket (Josh Bogorad and Daryl Reaugh)
Away Radio: 102.5 The Game (Pete Weber and Hal Gill)
Online Streaming: NHL.tv, Fubo.tv
Last Season vs. Nashville: 1-3-0
Dallas Stars Projected Line-Up
Devin Shore – Tyler Seguin – Valeri Nichushkin
Jamie Benn – Jason Spezza – Denis Gurianov
Blake Comeau – Radek Faksa – Tyler Pitlick
Mattias Janmark – Jason Dickinson – Gemel Smith
Esa Lindell – Julius Honka
Miro Heiskanen – Roman Polak
Dillon Heatherington – Joel Hanley
Dallas Stars Injury Report
Connor Carrick: Carrick is still out on IR with his foot injury, which was almost two weeks ago.
Martin Hanzal: There’s no change in Hanzal’s status yet, and he’ll still be a few more weeks.
Stephen Johns: Johns remains indefinitely on IR with no current predictions from the team for a return.
John Klingberg: Klingberg will be out for at least four weeks after getting surgery on his hand.
Marc Methot: Methot has missed four games now, but he’s not on IR right now and his status is up in the air. He did practice yesterday, though.
Alexander Radulov: Radulov said he wanted to play again once the Stars got home, but he didn’t play in Thursday’s game, and he won’t play today. The team did put him on retroactive IR, but that doesn’t mean anything for his return date, since he’s already passed the minimum time window.
Nashville Predators Injury Report
Viktor Arvidsson: Ardisson has been on injured reserve for a week and a half after a lower-body injury, and may play today.
Dan Hamhuis: Hamhuis has been missing for a few weeks on injured reserve, and won’t be back in time to play against his former team.
On a non-injury note, the Preds are also missing Austin Watson, who is serving an 18-game suspension after being arrested for domestic assault.
Injuries are the ongoing theme of this team right now, but if they can keep it together over the next few weeks and stay in the race, they could make a solid playoff push once the team is back to full strength.