Morning Skate: Stars rolling out big guns for first preseason game

FRISCO, Texas — Dallas Stars head coach Ken Hitchcock is delivering on his promise to play a strong lineup in the first preseason game.

Alexander Radulov, Ben Bishop, and Marc Methot are all making their preseason debuts. Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn are also in the lineup, and in total the Stars will have 14 skaters expected to make the NHL team in the lineup against the St. Louis Blues at American Airlines Center.

“Nervous a little bit, I know it’s preseason — I hate preseason, I hate everything about it. If I was a skilled forward who could just go out there and just feel the puck and stuff it be great. But I’m expected to play hard and kill penalties, and you like to do that in meaningful games,” Methot said. “Other than that I am extremely excited to be here. It’s going to be a new experience, I was used to playing in different colors for five years, so this will be a a new experience.”

It starts at the top where Benn, Seguin, and Radulov were working together at morning skate. Mattias Janmark will play his first game in more than a year on the second line with Brett Ritchie and Devin Shore.

The third line is potentially an all NHL line with Antoine Roussel, Jason Dickinson, and Tyler Pitlick. Dickinson appears to be on the outside looking in at this moment, but can still win a a job in training camp.

Fourth line is comprised of players (Denis Gurianov and Roope Hintz) battling Dickinson for that spot and Nick Caaamno, a prospect that earned a chance to play in the NHL preseason game and will likely return to the OHL’s Flint Firebirds before the end of training camp.

Defensively this game somewhat kicks off the battle for roster survival. Tonight Stephen Johns and Jamie Oleksiak get their opportunity, while Patrik Nemeth and Greg Pateryn are likely going to play on Thursday against the Colorado Avalanche.

In goal the plan is for Bishop to start, while Mike McKenna will play the third period.

“Kind of ease into it a little bit,” Bishop said. “I don’t think there is a right or wrong way to do it. Just getting your time down, it just takes a couple games, the first game — game and half — it’s just kind getting your timing down, reading the plays at game speed.”

Projected lineup:

Jamie Benn — Tyler Seguin — Alexander Radulov
Mattias Janmark — Devin Shore — Brett Ritchie
Antoine Roussel — Jason Dickinson — Tyler Pitlick
Nick Caamano — Roope Hintz — Denis Gurianov

Esa Lindell — John Klingberg
Marc Methot — Stephen Johns
Jamie Oleksiak — Julius Honka

Ben Bishop
Mike McKenna