After being dealt several injuries and disappointingly finishing the season, the Dallas Stars got one piece of positive news before their Round One matchup against the Colorado Avalanche. Although he won’t play tonight, Lia Assimakopoulos of The Dallas Morning News reported that defenseman Miro Heiskanen joined the team for optional practice this morning for the first time since sustaining his knee injury in late January.
Heiskanen has been upgraded to day-to-day status, which means he could be available to the Stars as early as Game 2. He will be a crucial player to reintegrate into the lineup since they are facing one of the top offenses in the league. While the Stars’ defense is strong, the Avalanche’s defense presents a tougher matchup as currently constructed.
There is a clear difference in Dallas with Heiskanen on the ice and Dallas without. The team earned a 64.0% winning percentage through the first 50 games of the regular season before Heiskanen’s injury, and saw it drop to 56.25% once he exited the lineup. There’s no questioning the Stars’ talent, and it would be a fool’s errand to write them off already, but the loss of their top defender has negatively impacted them as expected.
Other injury reports from the Central Division:
- Heiskanen wasn’t the only All-Star defenseman from the Central Division to have his season cut short. Nashville Predators’ captain Roman Josi has not played since February 25th due to an upper-body injury. Alex Daugherty of The Tennessean has confirmed that Josi was dealing with a concussion. Fortunately, there’s no expectation the concussion will impact Josi’s availability for the 2025-26 season, where he’ll look to rebound on a disappointing 38-point campaign.
- Before Game 1 of their Round One matchup against the St. Louis Blues, the Winnipeg Jets indirectly confirmed that winger Gabriel Vilardi wouldn’t be in their lineup. Vilardi hasn’t played since March 23rd due to an undisclosed injury. In a positive spin on the injury, Vilardi’s spot in the lineup was taken by depth forward Jaret Anderson-Dolan, who scored his first-career postseason goal in the first period.
It appears the Stars weren’t just playing possum at the end of the regular season afterall. They look like their gas tank is on E.
That game was much closer than the end result. Honestly it could have gone either way when it was 2-1. A Dallas bounce and a tied game would have made it really hard to overcome the home crowd.
I don’t know. Seems something is up with dallas. It’s not often the avs will out-hit an opponent, or win the face-off battle. Tonight they did both. Granted, blackwood won’t be able to maintain a .958 forever but their depth combined with dallas missing both Robertson and heiskanen certainly showed. It remains an intriguing series.
I suppose we will never know what might have happened if dallas could have gotten a bounce, but I’m definitely not ready to crown the avalanche just yet.
Lots of hockey to be played still.
Dallas is a paper tiger.
Two goals for Stankhoven in game one. How’s Rants doing?
This aged poorly….