Kari Lehtonen Close to Returning for Dallas Stars After Concussion; Rich Peverley Stops By Practice

Dallas Stars practice in Frisco was a newsy one Thursday Morning. Do you want the good or the bad first?

OK. Let's go good. Here's some good:

Kari Lehtonen close to returning for Stars, waiting to be cleared by doctors.

— Mark Stepneski (@StarsInsideEdge) March 13, 2014

Kari Lehtonen (concussion) could join regular practice and would be ready to play at that time, Lindy Ruff said.

— Mike Heika (@MikeHeika) March 13, 2014

So the concussion, or concussion-like symptoms, whichever the case may be, were not as bad as might have been given the forceful blow to the back of the head he received from that cross-bar against Minnesota Saturday night.

With the Tim Thomas experiment going well and no back-to-back in sight for another 10 days the Stars can afford patience here, and that is a very good thing. Any way you slice it, it appears that this is not going to be as big a hindrance as it could have been.

Here's some even better news:

Rich Peverley stopped by before practice and said hi to the players, according to Ray Whitney. ``He looked great,'' Whitney said.

— Mike Heika (@MikeHeika) March 13, 2014

Seeing Rich out of the hospital and in a normal setting had to do their hearts some good. In case you missed it this morning, Rich Peverley has been released from the hospital and is wearing a "monitoring vest" in the mean time before he has the procedure.

Now the not-so-good news:

Cody Eakin doubtful for tomorrow's game with Calgary.

— Mark Stepneski (@StarsInsideEdge) March 13, 2014

Eakin finished the Blues game without incident but was missing when they took the ice this morning. We'll get an update but it's going to be upper or lower body and nothing else. (Update: Lower body)

Moving Rich Peverley off the roster to injured reserve gives the Stars another roster spot to spare, unless I am very much mistaken, even with the three netminders still active. So the Stars would have to use another one of their AHL recalls for a 12th forward, or else go with seven D in a game and rotate guys on a "fourth" line.

The number of AHL recalls remaining is still unclear because we don't know if Sceviour or Mueller were brought up under "emergency" conditions for the Blues game.

Line combinations were not reported.

Benn and Seguin can be kept together. Fiddler, Roussel and Garbutt will be kept together, in all likelihood. The guess then is that you move Horcoff up between Cole and Sceviour, or Chiasson. Where Whitney and Nichushkin slot in is anyone's guess at this time.