(l-r) Alex Goligoski #33, Jamie Benn #14, Jason Spezza #90 and Tyler Seguin #91 of the Dallas Stars celebrate a second period goal by Benn against the New Jersey Devils at the Prudential Center on October 24, 2014 in Newark, New Jersey. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
Lindy Ruff addresses the media after practice here.
The Stars practiced today in McKinney, one of their annual visits to the suburban rinks, and created plenty of fun for an audience of elementary school kids. Afterward, coach Lindy Ruff weighed in on some of the key topics facing the team.
Antoine Roussel and Patrick Eaves both stayed off the ice and had “maintenance days,” but Ruff said he expected both to be ready for Friday’s game against Anaheim. In addition, the Stars sent Curtis McKenzie back to the AHL so he could play Wednesday night against Oklahoma City. McKenzie was a healthy scratch in recent games, and the young winger needs to be more active than that.
“We need to get him playing,” Ruff said. “Right now, he’s going down to play. Depending on Eaves and Roussel, he may be back, but he needs to play.”
Ruff said Eaves and Roussel should be OK, “Eaves is probably a little worse off than Roussel.”
Ruff said he probably won’t go into the weekend back-to-back (home Friday vs. Anaheim, at Minnesota Saturday) without at least one extra forward, so the situation is liquid. Val Nichushkin continues to skate, so he might be the extra forward.
“I don’t think we would,” Ruff said about traveling with just 12 forwards.
He added when talking about Nichushkin (groin/hip) and Sergei Gonchar (ankle): “They’re real close, so we have a little bit of comfort there. But if we got to that point, we’d probably have somebody here.”
Ruff was asked about keeping the Superline of Jamie Benn-Jason Spezza-Tyler Seguin together and whether he has considered breaking them up at any point in the past week. He said not a chance, the line is staying together.
“I love the top line, it’s more than like,” Ruff said. “When you can rack up the number of opportunities they rack up and make the plays they make, you can’t teach that. I’m not teaching that, they’re making it happen. They just need to make the adjustment on when the lower risk stuff needs to be utilized.”
Ruff added he sees enormous potential: “The more they play together and the more they talk about where they’re going to be and what they want to do, the better they’re going to get. When you look at the number of chances they’re creating now, it’s a really special line.”
While Jason Spezza said he believes the power play will get better because of the time at even strength.
“I think it will help our power play, because we have the familiarity of playing 5 on 5,” Spezza said. “For a while there, we only saw each other on the power play and that made it harder, but it feels more natural now, like we don’t have to rush it.”
He also said that faceoffs are working great, with a strong righty (him) and strong lefty (Benn).
“We’re starting to get some faceoff plays, and I really do think it helps to go on your strong side,” Spezza said. “I think I’m probably 10 percent better on my strong side, and that’s probably the same for everyone, so it makes a difference. If we can start with the puck and if we can maintain possession, we’ll be a hard line to play against.”
Ruff was asked if he had thought about juggling the other lines, and he said not that much.
“I like how things are flowing,” he said. “I’d like to get (Ales) Hemsky involved a little bit on our first power play unit. He’s really skated well and worked hard. I look at it as it’s my responsibility to give him some help to get going. He’s putting the work in, and he should get rewarded.”
Asked if he could possibly put Hemsky with Cody Eakin and then move Vern Fiddler to the Roussel-Garbutt line, and Ruff smiled a sly smile.
“We’ve got Anaheim ahead, and the third line against Anaheim…that’s kind of a fun night,” Ruff said. “So, we’ll see.”