Game Day Preview: Nashville Predators at Dallas Stars (7:00 pm CDT)

For the view from a Music City POV, check out Dirk Hoag's excellent blog, On the Forecheck, or Section303.

First, some interesting news per Mark Stepneski of Andrew's Dallas Stars Page:

Brian Sutherby and Mark Fistric are tonight's healthy scratches.

If you listened to our interview with Mark on Defending Big D Live, this won't be regarded as much of a surprise. Fistric struggled during the pre-season and Sutherby is simply the odd man out with Barch having been looked on quite favorably by Marc Crawford and the coaching staff.

Not to mention, this is also a signal to Fabian Brunnstrom that they intend to allow him to work through whatever problems he's been having adapting to Crawford's system. Art mentioned during Defending Big D Live that this is the third system Brunnstrom has played in in the last 18 months, so it's natural to expect him to have some issues.

And as I noted in the comments section Thursday, if Fabian is having problems slowing down the pace, sending him down to the AHL probably isn't the long term answer. Had he been sent down at the beginning of the year for 10 games and called him back up, he'd be at the same point, progression wise, that he's at now.

Follow the jump for lines and injury information.

Injury News

Jere Lehtinen returned to practice this week, but he hasn't progressed enough from his hip/groin injury to return to game action. He's shooting for the opener on the first road trip of the season up in Edmonton on Tuesday.

Lines

One minor change from the lines Brandon posted on last night's Stargazing. Obviously, Sutherby's a healthy scratch tonight. So sub him out and sub in Tom Wandell, according to Mike Heika.

Neal-Richards-Eriksson
Morrow-Ribeiro-Benn
Ott-Modano-Petersen
Barch-Wandell-Brunnstrom

Grossman-Robidas
Skrastins-Daley
Woywitka-Niskanen

Turco

Nashville Lines

Jordin Tootoo is out tonight. I know you're all as sad to hear that as I am. Joel Ward is out, too.

So here's what the Predator lines will likely look like tonight, per Dirk Hoag:

Sullivan - Arnott - Dumont
Santorelli - Legwand - Erat
Jones - Goc - Hornqvist
Smithson - Guite - Belak

Suter - Weber
Hamhuis - Klein
Bouillon - Laakso

A starter in goal has yet to be named. It could either be former Star, Dan Ellis, or Nashville's up and comer, Pekka Rinne.

Tune in around 7:00 tonight for the game thread. And don't forget, Sportsradio 1310 The Ticket is the new home for the Stars this season. I'm sure Ralph Strangis won't forget.