Quick turnaround for Stars ahead of visit to Detroit
DETROIT -- The Dallas Stars and the Detroit Red Wings are both coming off overtime losses heading into a meeting at Joe Louis Arena on Tuesday night.
The Stars (9-8-6) fell 4-3 to the Blues on Monday night in St. Louis on Vladimir Tarasenko's goal with 1:36 left in the extra period.
The Red Wings (10-10-2) lost 2-1 to the Montreal Canadiens in OT in Saturday night in Detroit.
Dallas coach Lindy Ruff said after the Monday defeat, "I thought we had some guys that struggled and couldn't get the legs going early on, so tomorrow is going to be a guessing game where we're at. Sometimes you can feel better on a second night, so we'll see where we're at."
The Stars fell to 1-6 in overtime games. Defenseman Jamie Oleksiak scored twice for Dallas, and Jamie Benn had a goal and two assists.
Detroit registered points in each of its past three games (2-0-1). However, the Red Wings are a banged-up team after two more players, defenseman Brendan Smith and rookie forward Tyler Bertuzzi, sustained injuries Saturday night.
Smith will miss about four weeks with a right medial collateral ligament sprain from a knee-on-knee collision with Montreal winger Phillip Danault. Bertuzzi will be out three to five weeks with a left high ankle sprain after he crashed into the boards awkwardly following a check by Canadiens defenseman Alexei Emelin.
Detroit was already missing: goalie Jimmy Howard, who is expected to miss a week after injuring his groin Friday night in a 5-4 overtime win in New Jersey; center Darren Helm, who is expected to miss at least a month more with a separated shoulder; forward Andreas Athanasiou, out due to a sprained knee; and defenseman Alexey Marchenko, still sidelined with an upper-body injury.
However, the Red Wings will have forward Tomas Jurco on Tuesday night. He makes his season debut after undergoing back surgery during the offseason. It will be his first NHL game since April 7. Jurco played two American Hockey League games with the Grand Rapids Griffins last week during a conditioning stint, and he registered a goal and an assist.
"I told him I have lots of patience with him," Detroit coach Jeff Blashill told www.mlive.com. "He's not going to get tons of minutes early. We're going to work him into it. But I think he's somebody that can help our lineup."
Jurco will play on the fourth line with Riley Sheahan and either Steve Ott or Drew Miller.
Stars general manager Jim Nill is quite familiar with Detroit and Joe Louis Arena. He spent 19 seasons as a part of the Red Wings management team, the final 15 as the assistant general manager under Ken Holland. Nill is in his fourth season as Dallas' general manager.
The Stars feature two former Red Wings players, right winger Patrick Eaves, who is off to a fast start with nine goals and 16 points, and forward Jiri Hudler, who is on injured reserve due to an illness. Hudler has been limited to four games this season.
