Islanders at Stars
The Dallas Stars saw their potent 1-2 punch of captain Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin lose half of its power as the latter is expected to miss the remainder of the regular season with a cut to his Achilles tendon. Without Seguin (NHL third-best 73 points), Benn (team-high 80 points) and the Western Conference-leading Stars look to keep it together on Saturday when they host the New York Islanders.
"It's a 15 percent cut of the Achilles tendon, probably the best-case scenario other than the tendon being totally cut," Dallas general manager Jim Nill said Friday. "They operated on him this morning, stitched him back up. He will be out 3-4 weeks and should be back for the playoffs. It's as good a case scenario as it could be, considering how he got cut (and) where he got cut." The Islanders' best-case scenario would be a season sweep of the Stars, as they received two-goal performances from both Kyle Okposo and Cal Clutterbuck in a 6-5 victory on Jan. 3. New York, however, suffered its second straight loss with a 4-2 setback to Nashville on Thursday and fourth in five outings (1-2-2) to see its lead over fourth-place Pittsburgh reduced to a single point.
TV: 8 p.m. ET, MSG-Plus (New York), FSN Southwest (Dallas), NHL.TV
ABOUT THE ISLANDERS (38-22-9): Brock Nelson scored in the third period against the Predators to bounce back after seeing his consecutive games streak end at 202 on Tuesday. "It's tough," Nelson told Newsday of sitting out as a healthy scratch versus the Penguins. "It's never fun watching a game, especially when you're healthy. It's tough. There's nothing you can do. It's out of my control. Just come back and play hard and try to help the team." Nelson's career-high 23rd goal was just his second in 20 games, but the 24-year-old set up a tally in the first encounter with Dallas for his sixth point (three goals, three assists) in five career meetings.
ABOUT THE STARS (42-21-9): The reigning Art Ross Trophy winner, Benn scored two goals and set up another as Dallas improved to 4-1-2 in its last seven games with a 4-3 triumph over Tampa Bay. The emotion was taken out of the victory with the loss of Seguin, but Saturday could see the return of John Klingberg as the defenseman has been sidelined for six games with a lower-body injury. "Klingberg is definitely a possibility (for Saturday)," Ruff said. "See how he made it through today. I thought (Thursday) was an option, which turned out not to be, so I would hope after (Friday's) practice and some extra work today, a little bit more fitness in the gym afterwards, that he'd be close to being ready for us."
OVERTIME
1. New York has outscored Dallas by a 26-18 margin to post a 4-0-1 mark in that stretch.
2. Stars C Jason Spezza, who had a goal and an assist in the previous meeting with the Islanders, has scored eight goals and set up another in his last eight games.
3. Islanders C Casey Cizikas is considered day-to-day with an upper-body injury, coach Jack Capuano told Newsday on Friday.