FRISCO, Texas — Defenseman Marc Methot will miss at least two more games with a lower-body injury, while forward Tyler Pitlick is cleared and ready to return as the Dallas Stars prepare for a three-game road trip.
Stars coach Ken Hitchcock said that Methot wouldn’t travel with the team, and that Dallas didn’t need to recall a defender.
That means the defense pairs should mimic both Friday’s win against the New York Islanders and practice on Sunday.
Esa Lindell — John Klingberg
Dan Hamhuis — Greg Pateryn
Jamie Oleksiak — Stephen Johns
Hitchcock said that if Methot is ready by Thursday, it would be easy to have him re-join the team in Tampa Bay after spending a couple days working out back in Frisco.
The forward situation is a bit trickier with Pitlick returning. Hitchcock doesn’t believe in a player losing their job to injury, so Pitlick will likely be back in the lineup against the Carolina Hurricanes on Monday.
Hitchcock said it would be a tough decision on whom to scratch. It’s also hard to see him splitting up the top two lines, so Remi Elie could be the healthy scratch alongside Jason Dickinson.
On Sunday the Stars ran the following lines, with Pitlick and Dickinson rotating in:
Gemel Smith — Jamie Benn – Alexander Radulov
Mattias Janmark — Tyler Seguin — Devin Shore
Remi Elie — Martin Hanzal — Jason Spezza
Antoine Roussel — Radek Faksa — Brett Ritchie
It is clear how the Stars will handle goaltending over the next two games.
Ben Bishop will start against the Hurricanes on Monday, while Kari Lehtonen will start against the Florida Panthers on Tuesday.
It’s likely that Bishop will start on Thursday against the Tampa Bay Lightning his old team, but Hitchcock isn’t the sentimental type and didn’t say that was a certainty.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.