One thing the Stars need right now after last night's loss to the Vancouver Canucks; Miro Heiskanen. The defensive anchor for the Dallas Stars has been out after Mark Stone went into Miro's knee in Vegas. The good news is it wasn't an injury that would cost him the remainder of the regular season. That would not be ideal for the Stars as they look to make another lengthy Stanley Cup Run this season. Let's examine whether Miro Heiskanen could be in the lineup for game one of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Let's review the news that broke before last night's game. Bruce LeVine said that Jim Nill expects Miro Heiskanen to return to the lineup at some point during round 1. More than likely, we won't see Heiskanen until the range of games 2-4 of the first round. That's better than the rumored report that he's entirely out of the first round of the playoffs. However, could Nill have the best poker face in the world, and Heiskanen ends up playing game one? It's possible that it could happen.
There's a couple of things you have to consider whether the Stars would play him in game one. One of those things is how long he can skate. They aren't going to throw Miro out there and expect 25-30 minutes off the bat. If he were to play, DeBoer would probably have a limit on how many minutes he has and increase it each game. However, based on how the last three games went, the Stars could use him, no matter how many minutes he plays moving forward.
The other thing the Stars will consider is the risk of him getting re-injured. The last thing the Stars need to do is throw him back in the lineup when he isn't ready and gets re-injured. That would be a terrible thing to have happen going into next season. If the Stars are doing well in the first round without him, they might decide to keep him out of the lineup until the second round so he doesn't risk getting injured again.
Things get super rough in the playoffs and I'm sure Miro Heiskanen wants to get back into the fray and help his team have another deep playoff run. If he can skate a long time and the re-injury risk is super low, put Heiskanen back in the lineup and see if that's good enough to get past their first-round opponent. In conclusion, Heiskanen could return to the lineup for game one of the playoffs. That theory is not out of the realm of possibility just yet.