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Ken Hitchcock hopes to reset Jason Spezza with rare healthy scratch

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Let’s clarify something first: Jason Spezza wasn’t scratched because of a pending trade.

For one, Spezza has a full no-trade clause during the season and by all accounts he, at this point, has no plans to waive it.

He’s also under contract for next season with a young family, he and his wife have four daughters. The only way Spezza is agreeing to a trade is for a more-than-ideal situation, and frankly it’s going to be hard for the Stars to find that with his $7.5 million contract.

Spezza isn’t going anywhere.

So, why was he scratched on Monday in a 3-2 overtime win against the Boston Bruins?

“We need a reset. He’s got to play better, a lot better, and he’s capable of it,” Stars coach Ken Hitchcock said. “He’s a big part of what we’re doing here, but we need a better player, and we’ll get one tomorrow.”

Yes, Spezza has had a disappointing season. He has 16 points (five goals, 11 assists) in 44 game and is going to finish with the lowest full-season offensive output of his career — in every season that he’s played 60 games or more, Spezza has at least 50 points.

But who should we blame for this misgiving?

The player obviously shoulders some of the responsibility, and he’ll own up to that, but the Stars decision makers also have to be examined.

Jim Nill greatly reduced Spezza’s role when he signed Martin Hanzal to a three-year contract. Ken Hitchcock, who picks the lineup, set the tone for Spezza on opening night when he only played 13 minutes, 43 seconds.

That opening night performance was actually above Spezza’s average time on ice. Spezza is averaging 13 minutes, 29 seconds per game, and has been moved up an down the lineup, often playing with bottom-six players after playing most of his career in primary scoring role.

You’d think that would be a challenge for the player, right?

Not according to the coach.

“I don’t think it’s challenging at all,” Hitchcock said. “He knows what he needs to do better. He’ll do it tomorrow and we’ll be off and running. But we need to hit the reset, enough with the talks. Let’s get going and let’s start playing the way we’re capable of. He can do this stuff, he’s shown the ability to do this stuff, but we can’t keep having conversations and no results. We’ve had the conversations, there is consequences with it, now let’s play.”

This certainly creates a key storyline heading into the Stars game against the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday — how will Spezza respond well to the first healthy scratch since his rookie season? And on top of that, what role will he play?

As an educated guess, Spezza will knock Brett Ritchie out of the lineup. That’s still a bottom-six role and with 13 or 14 minutes against Detroit, is Spezza really going to have a chance to produce and make the most Hitchcock’s message?

(I could keep listing questions that haven’t been answered, but you should just check back on Tuesday night after the game in Detroit for actual answers.)

Face-off fortune

On Saturday the Stars dominated a very bad face-off team in draws, winning 40 of 59 against the Colorado Avalanche.

The Bruins are a good team on face-offs and won 36 of the 69 face-offs on Monday afternoon, but Stars captain Jamie Benn had the craftiest face-off when he setup Alexander Radulov’s goal that temporarily gave Dallas a 2-0 lead.

Benn’s hands were positioned like he would be drawing the puck, but instead took a shot off the draw. With how Radulov went to the net, it looked like a designed play, and with a juicy rebound Radulov scored a crucial goal.

The Bruins broadcast broke down the play, in this clip here:

Lehtonen delivers

Playing in his first game in a month Kari Lehtonen made 30 saves, including six on the penalty kill in the first period when it was still a scoreless game.

“It was fun, I was really excited to play,” Lehtonen said. “I hadn’t played in a bit, so there was more excitement for sure. Tried to stay calm and work 60 minutes, and it was fun.”

Lehtonen will be back in the back-up role on Tuesday, but could be in position to start another game on this road trip against the Columbus Blue Jackets or Buffalo Sabres.

“Sound,” Hitchcock said. “And that’s what you hope for. He’s a back-up in word only. He’s really a starting goalie, and it’s a luxury and we’ve got to start using it.”

Game-winner

We’ll talk more about Tyler Seguin’s game-winning goal in a defining play story, which publishes tomorrow morning, but take a look at this highlight and this fact to hold you over until then.

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