It’s been over a week since Brenden Dillon skated. He left the playoff-clinching game versus the St Louis Blues on April 11th with a lower body injury.
He returned to the ice this morning before the Dallas Stars practiced in Frisco, Texas. He could skate again tomorrow and definitely will not be ready to play for game three, which marks the arrival of playoff hockey in Dallas as the series comes to the Lone Star State.
Brenden Dillon skated this morning and could skate on Monday. But he won’t play in Game 3.
— Mike Heika (@MikeHeika) April 20, 2014
Since Dillon left the lineup, the Stars have not won a game — they are on a three game losing streak, including the regular season finale in Phoenix and games one and two versus the Ducks. Dallas needs to win the game tomorrow to claw their way back into this playoff series.
The crowd should be on their side as a pretty loud crowd is expected at the American Airlines Center.
Coach Lindy Ruff appears to be tinkering with his lines some more looking for offensive spark throughout the lines. At practice today, the forwards were arranged as follows as reported by Mark Stepenski:
Jamie Benn – Tyler Seguin – Alex Chiasson
Erik Cole – Cody Eakin – Valeri Nichushkin
Antoine Roussel – Vernon Fiddler – Ryan Garbutt
Ray Whitney – Shawn Horcoff – Colton Sceviour
Defensive pairings were mixed, so we’ll probably have to wait for morning skate tomorrow to know who is in and who is out.
Also, in case you missed the news yesterday, Anaheim Ducks forward Corey Perry was not given a fine from the league on his lower body “stick check” on Stars captain Jamie Benn.