After a week of “Cardiac Hockey”, as I referred to on Friday, it was nice to have a fairly straightforward win on Saturday. But not only that, thanks to a little help from the Edmonton Oilers, your 2024-2025 Dallas Stars are officially clinched for the Stanley Cup Playoffs. What a time to be alive. How far they’ll go? It’s anyone’s guess, but here’s hoping this is the year.
The Stars are spending a little time in Seattle, soaking up their back-to-back against the Seattle Kraken. But my eyes and ears were jolted back to the Metroplex this weekend, as news broke that our very own Miro Heiskanen is back on the ice, officially skating. Here’s the report from Robert Tiffin:
The biggest Stars news of the day is Miro Heiskanen, who has taken an important step in his recovery from his knee injury (and subsequent surgery) nearly two months back.
After morning skate today, I asked Stars coach Pete DeBoer if Miro Heiskanen was “status quo” in his recovery, and DeBoer gave a very different answer than I expected:
“He’s skating back in Frisco,” DeBoer said. “And you know, nothing but positive reports. But just started.”
Of course, as Tiffin also notes, that last bit lets you know that nothing has changed necessarily on timelines. It’s still likely the Stars are without Miro for the first round of the playoffs. But it’s hard not to have hope they’ll have the defense boosted soon.
The Stars have just over three weeks until the beginning of the playoffs, so Heiskanen’s return is still on track for “some time during the first round,” as far as we know. One suspects we’ll have a better idea when he starts joining practices, so keep an eye out for that next week, if it happens.
More from Robert Tiffin on his website.
Dallas Stars Stuff
Oh, did I mention the Stars are in the playoffs?
Oh yeah, one more bit of housecleaning….
Of course we had to do the thing ▶️
— X – Dallas Stars (@DallasStars) March 30, 2025
X – Dallas Stars pic.twitter.com/5pkRgexgsS
While we’re at it, can we get a little Wyatt Johnston love going in this thread?
We've gotta talk about Wyatt Johnston.@BSWHealth | #TexasHockey pic.twitter.com/hI718uj5GX
— X – Dallas Stars (@DallasStars) March 30, 2025
Elsewhere in the Central
It was a busy weekend in the division as we start wrapping things up over the next few weeks.
- The St. Louis Blues continue their dark horse run as they’re now up to 9 wins in a row – with the latest coming at the expense of the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday. [RECAP]
- The Minnesota Wild, meanwhile, were more Mild with a loss to the New Jersey Devils. [RECAP]
- The Nashville Predators continue the “can this just be over” season, dropping one to the Vegas Golden Knights. [RECAP]
- On Sunday, the Winnipeg Jets took care of the Vancouver Canucks and are now on a 3-game winning streak after getting embarrassed by the Buffalo Sabres. [RECAP]
- Then came the inter-division matchup, which saw Utah HC coast to a victory over the Chicago Blackhawks. [RECAP]
Around the NHL
Now just 5 away from the record…
Yeesh.
Greetings from Scenic Cedar Park and Beautiful Boise!
Oh yeah, someone else has an X in their profile. And hey, take a bow, Matěj Blümel!
And it’s a great weekend all around, as the Idaho Steelheads ended their series on a high!
Finally
After a pretty impressive fight…this is from the box. Took the words right out of my mouth.