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Wednesday Afternoon Update: Radio Stream for Tonight; Radek Faksa Cleared to Play

Posted on by Robert Tiffin

While there’s no getting around the fact that the Dallas Stars are bereft of too many bodies to truly rejoice over one’s return, let’s at least start to turn those frowns upside down. Why? Radek Faksa has been cleared to play, and he will be in the lineup for the Stars’ second preseason game against the Avalanche tonight in Colorado.

By the way, it looks like fans can listen to tonight’s contest via Altitude Sports Radio AM 950 (if you live in Colorado or use an app that can stream it) and, more conveniently for some, via ColoradoAvalanche.com itself, per the Avs’ website.
And if that’s not good enough news for a hump day, there was even some #coachtalk today about putting Faksa on the power play:

“He got better as the year went on and he got more confidence as the year went on. He finished really strong through the playoffs,” Stars coach Lindy Ruff said of Faksa. “I know he has a history of playing on the power play, and there may be some opportunity for him there in the absence of a guy like Cody Eakin. At the same time, our penalty killing numbers were a lot better when he was in the lineup. So, there were areas of our games that were better when he played a lot of minutes for us.” [Stars]

According to the same Venerable Beat Writer, Mark Stepneski, Radek Faksa was skating with the “game group” this morning on a collection of lines that might be described as a “collage,” “ramshackle assemblage,” “hodgepodge” or “cobbled-together monstrosity,” depending on your mood. It is the preseason.

And on the back end, another returning WCoH veteran joins the fray, as Esa Lindell draws in alongside the “please explain the five-year gap in your NHL resume” veteran Andrew Bodnarchuk. If you want to read into anything, Bodnarchuk also shoots left, so he looks to be the one playing on his off-wing (as is Oleksiak):

As for the other wagon-fulla-injury updates, here’s what we know today:

It’s great to see Hemsky skating at all, as that means his groin is definitely in the “bearable” category as opposed to the “cannot get into a car without questioning the existence of good anywhere in the universe” category.

And as for the Tyler Seguin Update? There is no Tyler Seguin Update:

Of course, just because there’s no update doesn’t mean we can’t speculate, because what could be more fun than that? (Narrator: Many things are far demonstrably more fun than that.) If the Seguin injury is indeed a hairline fracture to the calcaneus (heel bone), then the DBD thinking (AKA Dr. Erin and “some other people Robert talked to”) is that the Sep. 9th injury was probably in the 4-6 week recovery range, putting Seguin’s return by opening night at around 50/50.

If I’m guessing, I’d bet the Stars play it safe (after what happened with a different injury in the playoffs) and wait until the home game against the Jets on October 25th. You should definitely put a lot of stock in my opinion because I made a great bagel/egg/cheese breakfast sandwich this morning.

Or, if you want a more professional disclaimer:

Jamie Benn, meanwhile, continues to work towards a projected late-preseason return from his core-muscle surgery that kept him (mercifully) out of the World Cup. I’m not sure if the “mercifully” is intended for his sake or Canada’s poor opponents’ sake, but let’s just say both. Anyway, here’s where he stands:

So, there you have it. Listen to tonight’s game and join the gameday thread that will be up later. Dallas Stars players are playing hockey as the Dallas Stars, and that is something to be happy about. It is nice to be happy.

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