Brad RIchards is out with a sore groin. Marc Crawford said it's been bothering Richards since camp and they've decided to give him some time off. Richards didn't skate today and won't skate tomorrow. They'll see where he is on Wednesday in Anaheim, so his status for that game is undetermined at this point.
This is something that Richards has been battling all season, and has been taking some practices off to rest his "sore legs". I haven't noticed anything off with Richards during games and I've thought he's been consistently great, so it's frustrating to see him missing time just when he seemed poised to really break out for a big season. However, I also think it's important for him to take some time off and rest his injury and try to not let this linger throughout the season.
With the Stars playing four games this week between tonight and Saturday, some of these injured players are going to need to return at some point or this team will be dead come Sunday. It seems that Steve Ott, Mike Modano and Jere Lehtinen are getting close to returning, with Ott much closer than the other two. Ott will be making the trip to California.
As for the lines, Perttu Lindgren was practicing with James Neal and Loui Eriksson so we may see something like this:
Morrow - Ribeiro - Benn
Neal - Lindgren - Eriksson
Sutherby - Wandell - Brunnstrom
Barch - Petersen - Fistric
Or.....maybe this:
Morrow - Ribeiro - Benn
Neal - Petersen - Eriksson
Sutherby - Wandell - Brunnstrom
Barch - Lindgren - Fistric
Should be interesting to watch.