The Dallas Stars travel to Xcel Energy Center tonight, taking on the Minnesota Wild in what will be the last match for either team before the games start counting. The Stars defeated the Wild 4-1 on Tuesday in American Airlines Center; with their preseason record currently standing at 3-2, they have a chance to finish on a winning streak.
Head coach Ken Hitchcock will sit several members of his “A squad” who are expected to make the opening night lineup, including Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin, Alexander Radulov, John Klingberg and Mattias Janmark. Instead, he’ll give the start to a handful of guys who are still vying for a spot on the roster.
No doubt you’ve already read Robert’s pregame warm-up (and if you haven’t, why aren’t you more ashamed of yourself?), but here’s a refresher on tonight’s projected lines as posted by Mark Stepneski:
Remi Elie – Jason Spezza – Brett Ritchie
Antoine Roussel – Martin Hanzal – Devin Shore
Gemel Smith – Radek Faksa – Tyler Pitlick
Jason Dickinson – Roope Hintz – Adam Cracknell
Esa Lindell – Julius Honka
Marc Methot – Jamie Oleksiak
Dan Hamhuis – Stephen Johns
Ben Bishop will start in goal and is expected to play the entire game.
Projected lineup for the Wild:
Nino Niederreiter – Eric Staal – Charlie Coyle
Jason Zucker – Mikko Koivu – Mikael Granlund
Marcus Foligno – Joel Eriksson Ek – Chris Stewart
Tyler Ennis – Matt Cullen – Luke Kunin
Ryan Suter – Matt Dumba
Jonas Brodin – Jared Spurgeon
Mike Reilly – Kyle Quincey
Devan Dubnyk (2-0 so far for the preseason) is in goal.
There’s no TV broadcast for this one, and apparently no KTCK either, but you can follow along with the team Twitter stream at @DallasStars.