Well...the Dallas Stars front office did say that this offseason the team wanted to address their depth that proved problematic when the injury bug hit. It would appear that we are going to see just how well the Dallas Stars did in addressing that depth problem earlier than we had expected.
At Stars practice in Frisco today, it was confirmed that defensmen Nicklas Grossman and Adam Pardy will be out for the home-and-home with the Chicago Blackhawks. Grossman has a lower body injury, and Adam Pardy is out with an upper body injury.
Another note on the injury front: Adam Burish was not on the ice at practice this morning. He will skate tomorrow and be evaluated then. He is probably doubtful for the weekend as well.
Editors note: via ESPN Dallas, Adam Pardy has been put on injured reserve with a rib injury. -BG
After the jump, a look at the lines that were seen in practice as well as the special guests that were present today.
With the injuries to two of the Stars' biggest defensemen, it is expected that all 6 available defensemen will dress this Friday. Defensive pairings in practice were juggled a bit, especially after Grossman left the ice and did not come back. We can only guess at what will be seen on Friday on the blueline. At the beginning of practice, Mark Fistric seemed to be the odd man out, pairing up with Coach Paul Jerrard on many drills that were being run. With the injury news, however, Fistric will be most likely in the lineup on Friday.
The good news is that the forwards appear to be ready to go, with only Burish remaining as a question mark. Both Brenden Morrow and Jamie Benn were on the ice and did not appear any worse for the wear, so it should be fairly certain to see them in the lineup on Friday. The lines that were seen at practice the most looked like this:
Morrow-Ribeiro-Ryder
Ott-Benn-Vincour
Eriksson-Dvorak-Fiddler
Wandell-Dowell-Petersen
Eriksson down on the third line is a look we have seen for the past few preseason games. With the coaching staff wanting to roll four consistent lines with scoring threats on each, is this what should be expected for much of the season, or is this a byproduct of having Vincour in the lineup right now? We'll have to wait and see, but it sure does make for an interesting look.
The Dallas Stars practice was star-studded today. Dallas Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle was spotted sitting behind the bench, "taking notes" and observing the guys out on the ice. He also had some of his assistant coaches as well. Razor Reaugh even tweeted a picture of it, but it's a victim of shaky hand phone camera syndrome. However, I was able to get a short video of Carlisle observing coach Glen Gulutzan's hands-on coaching style:
Another visitor at practice today was Tom Gaglardi, the man who submitted the stalking-horse bid for the Dallas Stars. I don't think too much can be read into him being there, but he spent some time observing the Stars at practice and talking with general manager Joe Nieuwendyk.
A fun little interaction happened at practice today when a current season ticket holder, whose birthday is today, was escorted into the Stars store to pick out whatever she wanted for her birthday by none other than the Stars' own Ralph Strangis. He proceeded to pick out her gift with her and then threw in a teddy bear as well. A very nice gesture by an absolute gem.
Only 48 more hours til puck drop.