The Dallas Stars have officially recalled Brett Ritchie and Curtis McKenzie from the Texas Stars.
The Texas Stars were eliminated in the AHL Calder Cup Playoffs after the San Diego Gulls (Anaheim) took out their facepunchers and replaced them with some of the eliminated Ducks, creating a much more efficient team that Texas simply couldn’t deal with.
Stars recall Curtis McKenzie (@muckbro16) and Brett Ritchie (@britch20) from @TexasStars. https://t.co/krEeGKUecm
— #NHL17Benn (@DallasStars) April 30, 2016
Now they get to be a potential part of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Neither Ritchie nor McKenzie were able to produce in their limited appearances during the regular season, but injuries and forward depth kept them from securing a full time roster spot.
Despite concerns about whether or not Valeri Nichushkin will continue to sit, it’s not looking like it. According to Lindy Ruff, Nuke is playing for Game 2:
Can he take that excitement and funnel it into the right places? He’s a young player. We’ll have to see and how he handles it. I know if he’s able to handle that excitement and funnel it in the right direction, we’ve got ourselves a real good player again.
So this looks like purely a depth move in case of either future injuries, struggling players, or simply line matching. After all, Ritchie and McKenzie play a physical brand of hockey that will suit St. Louis’ game just fine. I mean, McKenzie’s twitter handle is ‘MuckBro’. Those are only a few syllables away from ‘takes the ice as seriously as John Rambo fighting Soviets alongside Mujahideen forces‘.
The Dallas Stars have moved away from pesky to percussion.