DALLAS — Jason Dickinson should have a better chance for success when he returns to the Dallas Stars lineup against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday.
This will be Dickinson’s sixth NHL game of the season, in the prior five he was playing wing in limited ice time, and on three separate occasions he joined the NHL team without having a chance to practice.
Dickinson will be back at his natural position tonight, centering a line between Gemel Smith and Brett Ritchie, while he’s been with the team for a couple days already and was a healthy scratch in two games, so he’s a bit more acclimated than his lat call-up on Dec. 11.
“It’s good for me to just be up here,” Dickinson said. “Even to be in practice, I just get to learn from everybody just from watching. I don’t need to talk to anyone necessarily, just watching what the guys do and the different styles on the ice. I can take a bit and piece from everybody, and I can just watch and learn.”
Stars coach Ken Hitchcock said putting Dickinson in the right position is important.
“He’s exactly what we need, he’s got size. He’s got speed, he’s on top of you immediately, an edge to him, and that’s ho we’re built,” Hitchcock said. “Where we have not been fair to him is he plays center all year and then he comes up here and plays wing, so this is the first real go at center ice, which I think will be a good evaluation.”
Injury update
Remi Elie has the flu, that’s why Dickinson is getting into the lineup.
Marc Methot took part in the morning skate and Hitchcock said he’s hopeful the defenseman returns on Thursday against the New Jersey Devils.
Martin Hanzal skated for the first time in three days and Hitchcock said he’s a couple days behind Methot. Hanzal will miss his third straight game with a lower-body injury.
The Blue Jackets cancelled their morning skate, so we’ll have more updates on them when John Tortorella meets with the media around 6 p.m. tonight.
Blue Jackets projected lineup
Artemi Panarin — Pierre-Luc Dubois — Nick Foligno
Sonny Milano — Boone Jenner — Josh Anderson
Matt Calvert — Lukas Sedlak — Oliver Bjorkstrand
Tyler Motte — Zac Dalpe — Jordan Schroeder
Zach Werenski — Seth Jones
Markus Nutivaara — David Savard
Scott Harrington — Jack Johnson
Sergei Bobrovsky
Joonas Korpisalo
Scratched: Dean Kukan, Markus Hannikainen
Injured: Ryan Murray (upper body), Brandon Dubinsky (fractured orbital bone), Alexander Wennberg (back), Cam Atkinson (fractured foot)
Stars projected lineup
Jamie Benn — Tyler Seguin — Devin Shore
Mattias Janmark — Jason Spezza — Alexander Radulov
Antoine Roussel — Radek Faksa — Tyler Pitlick
Gemel Smith — Jason Dickinson — Brett Ritchie
Esa Lindell — John Klingberg
Dan Hamhuis — Greg Pateryn
Stephen Johns — Julius Honka
Ben Bishop
Kari Lehtonen
Scratched: None
Injured: Martin Hanzal (lower-body), Marce Methot (knee), Remi Elie (illness)
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