DALLAS — Curtis McKenzie was recalled from the AHL on Friday morning, but won’t play tonight for the Dallas Stars against the New York Islanders.
Stars coach Ken Hitchcock surprisingly said that both Radek Faksa and Brett Ritchie would be back in the lineup.
Faksa didn’t practice with the team at all this week with a knee injury, while Ritchie didn’t return to practice until Thursday. Both took part in morning skate on Friday, and Hitchcock said they saw enough for both players to enter the lineup.
This also means that Jason Dickinson will likely be a healthy scratch, while the fourth line will likely consist of Faksa centering Antoine Roussel and Ritchie.
It’s a bit of a puzzling situation based on comments earlier this week from Hitchcock.
Earlier this week Hitchcock said he didn’t think either player would be ready to go later this week, and they both needed at least a couple practices to be lineup options. Neither player got a couple practices in, but both are scheduled to play.
This comes five days after Stars seemingly rushed back Martin Hanzal against the Winnipeg Jets on Monday.
Two days before that game Hitchcock said Hanzal wouldn’t be an option on Monday and he needed a couple practices to get going. Once Tyler Pitlick (who is out tonight) and Faksa got injured, Hanzal became an option and after the game Hitchcock said he played because the Stars “needed a body.”
It’s a bit of a let-down for McKenzie, who had been playing well in the AHL and when he addressed the media it seemed like he was playing that evening.
“It’s great,” McKenzie said. “It’s nice to be back here with all the guys … I felt like every day (my work in the AHL) was back to get in the NHL the full time. Whether it was in practice or games, I was always working for that.”
McKenzie wasn’t even skating late like a healthy scratch. By all accounts, it looked like he was playing.
Instead he’ll be a healthy scratch tonight, and his call-up just adds more salary cap complications for a team that is very close to the limit.
Islanders projected lineup
Anders Lee — John Tavares — Josh Bailey
Brock Nelson — Mathew Barzal — Jordan Eberle
Andrew Ladd — Alan Quine — Anthony Beauvillier
Jason Chimera — Casey Cizikas — Cal Clutterbuck
Nick Leddy — Johnny Boychuk
Calvin De Haan — Scott Mayfield
Thomas Hickey — Ryan Pulock
Jaroslav Halak
Thomas Greiss
Scratches: Dennis Seidenberg
Injured: Nikolay Kulemin (wrist), Adam Pelech (upper-body)
Stars projected lineup
Gemel Smith — Jamie Benn — Alexander Radulov
Mattias Janmark — Tyler Seguin — Devin Shore
Remi Elie — Martin Hanzal — Jason Spezza
Antoine Roussel — Radek Faksa — Brett Ritchie
Esa Lindell — John Klingberg
Dan Hamhuis — Greg Pateryn
Jamie Oleksiak — Stephen Johns
Ben Bishop
Kari Lehtonen
Scratched: Curtis McKenzie, Jason Dickinson
Injured: Tyler Pitlick (upper-body), Marc Methot (lower-body)
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.