DALLAS — For the second time in their professional careers Jamie and Jordie Benn will play head-to-head.
It’s also the first time their parents, Randy and Heather Benn, will be in attendance when the Dallas Stars host the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday.
The Benn family went out to dinner on Monday night.
“Same old, same old dinner with the Benn family,” Jordie Benn said. “Little bit of arguing, little bit of pictures. Arguing over what jersey my mom and dad will wear to the game tonight.”
So who won that argument?
“I brought two Montreal jerseys,” Jordie Benn said. “So if they don’t wear them I’m gonna be pissed.”
Overall it should be a fun night for the Benn brothers.
“It’s going to be fun. I’ve got my parents down here for this one, this is going to be the first time they see us play against each other live,” Jamie Benn said. We’re looking forward it and the bigger picture is we need to keep working on our game and find a way to get this one at home.”
Antti Niemi returns
Former Stars goalie Antti Niemi made his return to Dallas on Tuesday.
Niemi played the past two seasons for Dallas, but was bought out after a disappointing 2016-17 season. This season hasn’t gone much better for the Finnish goalie, who is now on his third team after getting waived by both the Pittsburgh Penguins and Florida Panthers.
Niemi will likely be waived again at some point. Long-term Niemi doesn’t fit in the Canadiens plans, and once Carey Price is healthy the former Star will likely be waived once again.
Niemi is actually in pretty good spirits about the situation. Talking after the Canadiens morning skate he said he’s been keeping a positive attitude about everything, and this trip to Dallas came at a good time since his wife still lives here in Texas.
Niemi said he does’t know what’s going to happen as Carey Price gets healthy, but he’s keeping an open mind about the whole situation.
Hanzal skates
Martin Hanzal had a “long, hard skate” on Tuesday morning and is getting closer according to Stars coach Ken Hitchcock.
Hitchcock did say that Hanzal wouldn’t travel with the team on Wednesday for a game against the Colorado Avalanche. But there is a chance he could return to the lineup on Friday against the Calgary Flames.
Hitchcock didn’t have an update on when Kari Lehtonen would re-join the team. Lehtonen is on leave for personal reasons and he and his wife had a baby earlier this week.
Radulov
Alexander Radulov has been popular with the Montreal media this week.
On Tuesday the forward had 25-minute scrum with Montreal media, and that continued at morning skate where he met with the media for close to 10 minutes.
I spoke to Radulov earlier this week, before the Montreal media arrived, and said he was expecting this.
“You knew this would be coming,” Radulov said. “But this will be nothing. It will be so much more when we play there (in Montreal).
Canadiens projected lineup
Max Pacioretty — Jonathan Drouin – Alex Galchenyuk
Paul Byron — Phillip Danault — Andrew Shaw
Charles Hudon — Tomas Plekanec — Brendan Gallagher
Nicolas Deslauriers – Jacob de la Rose – Torrey Mitchell
Jordie Benn — Shea Weber
Karl Alzner — Jeff Petry
Victor Mete — Joe Morrow
Charlie Lindgren
Antti Niemi
Scratches: Byron Froese, Brandon Davidson
Injured: Carey Price (lower-body), David Schlemko (hand)
Stars projected lineup
Antoine Roussel — Jamie Benn — Alexander Radulov
Devin Shore — Tyler Seguin — Brett Ritchie
Remi Elie — Jason Spezza — Gemel Smith
Mattias Janmark — Radek Faksa — Tyler Pitlick
Esa Lindell — John Klingberg
Dan Hamhuis — Greg Pateryn
Jamie Oleksiak — Stephen Johns
Ben Bishop
Mike McKenna
Scratched: Julius Honka
Injured: Marc Methot (knee), Martin Hanzal (hand), Kari Lehtonen (personal)
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.