Ben Bishop out at least one game with sore back

FRISCO, Texas — Dallas Stars goalie Ben Bishop will miss at least one game with a sore back.

Stars coach Ken Hitchcock said Bishop is day-to-day and wouldn’t travel with the team for a game against the St. Louis Blues on Thursday. Hitchcock said he is hopeful that Bishop will be back for Saturday’s game against the Vegas Golden Knights.

Kari Lehtonen will start and Hitchcock said the Stars will recall a goalie from the AHL to back-up. Mike McKenna and Landon Bow have shared goaltending duties for the Texas Stars this season. McKenna is the more likely call-up with more NHL experience and it would make sense to keep Bow playing games since the call-up isn’t expected to get any playing time.

Bishop allowed three goals on 15 shots before getting pulled in a 5-2 loss to the Nashville Predators on Tuesday. Lehtonen entered that game in relief and made 15 saves on 17 shots.

Bishop wasn’t available to the media on Wednesday, but he had blamed himself for the loss on Tuesday.

“It wasn’t our best effort tonight,” Bishop said on Tuesday. “It started with me. I wasn’t very good, so we just put it behind us and get ready for another one.”

Bishop is 13-8-0 with a 2.68 goals against average and .910 save percentage in 23 games this season. Lehtonen is 3-3-1 with a 2.80 goals against average and .900 save percentage in nine games.

Roussel on trip

Antoine Roussel will travel with the team, but it’s still to be determined if he’ll play against St. Louis.

Roussel was expected to play Tuesday against Nashville, but didn’t feel well enough after warmups and Curtis McKenzie took his spot in the lineup. Roussel did practice on Wednesday, but he was rotating in on the third line with Gemel Smith.

Based off practice lines, the Stars will likely role out a lineup looking something like this:

Jamie Benn — Tyler Seguin — Alexander Radulov
Curtis McKenzie — Jason Spezza — Brett Ritchie
Remi Elie — Mattias Janmark — Devin Shore
Antoine Roussel OR Gemel Smith — Radek Faksa — Tyler Pitlick

Esa Lindell — John Klingberg
Dan Hamhui — Greg Pateryn
Jamie Oleksiak — Stephen Johns

Kari Lehtonen

Julius Honka looks like another healthy scratch after rotating in on pairs in practice Wednesday. He also spent an additional 30 minutes on the ice by himself after the rest of the team had cleared the ice.

New addition

Stars defenseman Marc Methot is still out with an injury, but he and his wife had something to celebrate on Wednesday when their son, Jack Campbell Methot, was born a little after midnight on Tuesday.

The biggest moment of my life happened late last night at 12:31am. Jack Campbell Methot was introduced into this world. Born a Texan and healthy as can be. The wife is doing great also.

A post shared by Marc Methot (@marcmeth3t) on Dec 6, 2017 at 9:15am PST

Methot is the second Stars player to have a child this season. Lehtonen and his wife welcomed a baby boy named Remi last month.