DALLAS — The Dallas Stars aren’t juggling their defense like Ken Hitchcock indicated after practice Monday.
The defense pairs are staying the same, meaning Jamie Oleksiak will be a healthy scratch for the second straight game. Hitchcock did say Oleksiak deserves to be in the lineup and will play either Tuesday or Thursday as the Stars play a home-and-home with the Arizona Coyotes.
Hanzal homecoming
While Martin Hanzal played against the Coyotes in the final game of the 2016-17 regular season as a member of the Minnesota Wild, he said it’s still an odd feeling playing against a team he played for from 2007 to 2017.
“It’s always probably going to feel weird, spending ten years there,” Hanzal said. “So every time I play against them it’s probably going to feel weird. But I’ll enjoy it. I’m on a great team right now so I’ll enjoy playing against them.”
NHL Debut
Coyotes goalie Adin Hill is making his NHL debut tonight against the Stars.
The 21-year-old was rather excited after the morning skate and was speaking a mile-per-minute as he answered seven questions in a span of 90 seconds.
“I’m excited for tonight, it’s my dream ever since being a little kid,” Hill said. “It’s just another game, it’s a hockey game out there, it’s the NHL, but I’ve got to treat it like it’s another game. I just have to keep doing what I’ve been doing.”
Hill had a 0.65 goals against average and .968 save percentage in two American Hockey League starts before getting recalled.
Rinaldo returnes
Zac Rinaldo is making his Coyotes debut after serving a suspension from March of 2016 for a head check to Cedric Paquette.
Rinaldo didn’t play in the NHL last season and was forced to serve the suspension at the start of this season.
Coyotes coach Rick Tocchet said he’s had conversations with Rinaldo about toeing the line and play a smart game. He also added, “if you see a guy’s numbers, make sure you don’t hit him.”
Coyotes projected lineup
Max Domi — Derek Stepan — Tobias Rieder
Clayton Keller — Christian Dvorak — Anthony Duclair
Lawson Crouse — Nick Cousins — Christian Fischer
Zac Rinaldo — Brad Richardson — Jordan Martinook
Oliver Ekman-Larsson — Niklas Hjalmarsson
Kevin Connauton — Jason Demers
Alex Goligoski — Luke Schenn
Adin Hill
Louis Domingue
Injured: Antti Raanta (lower body), Jakob Chychrun (knee), Brendan Perlini (upper body)
Scratched: Mario Kempe, Adam Clendening
Stars projected lineup
Jamie Benn — Tyler Seguin — Alexander Radulov
Mattias Janmark — Jason Spezza — Brett Ritchie
Remi Elie — Martin Hanzal — Devin Shore
Antoine Roussel — Radek Faksa — Tyler Pitlick
Marc Methot — John Klingberg
Esa Lindell — Julius Honka
Dan Hamhuis — Stephen Johns
Ben Bishop
Kari Lehtonen
Scratched: Jamie Oleksiak, Greg Pateryn, Gemel Smith
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