The veteran forward was boarded and had to get stitches post-game in his head. Dallas scored on the ensuing major power play.
Dallas Stars head coach Pete DeBoer stepped up to the podium to address the media after his team defeated the Colorado Avalanche 3-1 in their fifth preseason game of the season. He said one of the key things they wanted to do was to get through these exhibitions healthy.
That hasn’t worked out for them so much yet.
Top-line center Roope Hintz has an upper body injury. Second-line center Wyatt Johnston is also being held out after “tweaking something”. Now, fourth-line center Radek Faksa joins the slightly-banged-up brigade after he was boarded in tonight’s game.
Midway through the third period, in a 1-1 game, Avalanche defenseman Nate Clurman lined up Faksa along the boards near the penalty box. Faksa went down, the refs arm immediately went up, and Logan Stankoven came into the scrum of players to make it known how much he did not appreciate his teammate getting the bad end of that hit. Clurman was assessed a major penalty as well as a game misconduct, likely meaning he’ll also be receiving a call from the Department of Player Safety in the near future.
Faksa was looked at by the trainers and skated off the ice under his own willpower. DeBoer said he was getting stitches postgame and seemed to be clear-headed, but it will be a wait-and-see game on whether he ends up in concussion protocol as a result of the hit. Sometimes those symptoms onset later on, so the team will likely keep a close eye on him to ensure there’s no lingering effects from the play.
Joe Pavelski would score on the power play that ensued, and the Stars would eventually ice the game with an empty-net goal courtesy of a give-and-go between Matt Duchene and Craig Smith, two new additions to the team this summer.
Outside of that, the game was kind of low-key and a little low-energy to start. The two teams seemed to be working on their defensive structures, with shots on goal being nearly even at 8-7 (advantage Colorado) after the first 20 minutes.
Colorado got on the board first for the only goal in the middle frame, which is kind of surprising when you see that the Stars outshot them by a margin of 14-2 that period. The tally came on a good play on the penalty kill that led to Ondrej Pavel putting the puck between Oettinger’s legs on the penalty kill for a shorthanded goal.
Jason Robertson did Jason Robertson things, making a very skilled move look insanely easy with the calm collectedness he scored the tying game with.
The Stars are now 4-0-1 in the preseason with two games remaining, including a home matchup versus the St. Louis Blues on Thursday and a road game against the Minnesota Wild.