Tuesday Dallas Stars Roundup: Roope’s Return, Full Facemask Finesse, and Marchment Marches On

The big news for Dallas Stars fans today is that Roope Hintz will return to the lineup for tonight’s game against the Carolina Hurricanes. The lineup will otherwise remain the same at it was on Sunday, which means Jake Oettinger and Brendan Smith will both be back in.

Hintz left last Thursday’s game in Toronto just a few shifts in after taking a check from Auston Matthews. Hintz would play a bit more in the first period of that game before heading down the tunnel, not to be heard from for a week. But Pete DeBoer confirmed after morning skate today that Hintz would indeed be back in.

To what extent Hintz is deployed tonight will be interesting to see, as Hintz practiced on the second power play unit this morning (Bourque, Stankoven, Harley, and Dadonov), with Matt Duchene continuing to get reps in Hintz’s old spot with Benn, Johnston, Heiskanen, and Robertson. That may just be a result of Hintz’s not having practiced with his old power play group, and given their recent success (three power play goes in their last two games), you could see DeBoer being reluctant to throw Hintz back up there right away, lest burgeoning chemistry be disrupted. (I just wrote that sentence because I wanted to say “burgeoning.”)

It’s not been publicly revealed what the injury to Hintz was. But the fact that he’s returning after just a week is certainly a positive thing for the Stars, whose forward depth has been tested heavily through 46 games this year.

The decision to bring Hintz back in was telegraphed earlier on Tuesday, when the Dallas Stars recalled only Matěj Blümel, with Justin Hryckowian remaining in Cedar Park. The Stars sent both players down yesterday, as they’ve been doing before days off most of the season for salary cap accrual purposes, so only recalling one of them was a pretty strong sign that Hintz would be ready to go again.

The recall is also a pretty strong sign that Blümel has played his way to the front of that 13th forward battle for now, after players like Arttu Hyry and Justin Hryckowian have also gotten multiple recalls. Given Blümel’s goal last game (and the called-back goal he had the day before in Colorado), he’s certainly looking more confident than ever, and with Marchment’s return still not imminent (more on that in a moment), Blümel could very well get a good chance to show he deserves to be a part of the conversation down the stretch in the regular season—and maybe even beyond that.

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As for Mason Marchment, DeBoer updated his timeline today after Marchment participated in morning skate with a full face shield, or “bubble.” Though, “update” may be too strong of a term, really. Marchment was most recently (on January 8) given a roughly four-week recovery timeline by DeBoer after his December 29th injury and subsequent facial surgery, but this morning, DeBoer said this when asked about Marchment:

“[Marchment]’s still a ways away,” said DeBoer. “I think when he initially had the surgery, they were talking either just before or just after the break, so I think that’s still the timeline.”

The Stars’ last game before the 4 Nations Face-Off break is February 8 in San Jose. The earlier “four week” timeline would have put his return near January 28, when the Stars play in Vegas. So, we’ll have to see when, or if, Marchment returns in that timespan.

For reference, Matt Dumba first re-joined practice with a bubble on December 22, then played his first game on December 31. Given the fact that DeBoer previously said the players’ timelines have some similarities, Marchment could end up still being on track for a late-January return if he follows that same timeline.

Speaking of which, Dumba and Marchment got together for a fun picture during morning skate today with both players grinning with their full face shields.

The two players also stayed out on the ice late practicing with Casey DeSmith, which further clarified the fact that Dumba will be a healthy scratch, making this his third such multi-game run this season.

One last note on the full face shields: Dumba praised the equipment staff the other day for how they’ve worked with him to adjust where to drill the holes to fit the full cage on his helmet, in order to make it work better for him. It’s been a process to find the most comfortable fit with a new piece of equipment, but you can tell how much the players appreciate the tireless work from the equipment staff to make the adjustment as easy as possible.

In fact, if you’ve watched the bench closely during Dumba’s recent games, you’ll have noticed the Stars’ equipment folks on the bench always being ready to help wipe his mask down the moment he gets off the ice, since it’s a little tricker than just wiping down a visor, as players will usually do themselves.

One suspects Marchment will be going through the same process with his own new face shield, and perhaps already is.

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As for Brendan Smith, who will be playing back-to-back games for the first time in over a month, DeBoer called Smith a “good pro,” and then went on to talk about what the team needs to see from him:

“[Brendan Smith]’s waited for his chance,” said DeBoer, “and when he comes in, he’s gotta do exactly what he did in [the Detroit game], which is just ‘solid.’ You know, we talked about the game before in Colorado, we gave up ten Grade A scoring chances, and I think the last game we got that back down to three. That’s a winning formula for us…and our defense is part of that. We don’t need them to lead the league in offense, but we need solid and consistent.”

Smith has been very honest this year about the challenges of coming in and out of the lineup, but with Dumba struggling to show that consistency DeBoer referred to, Smith has a chance to become the default sixth defenseman if he can have another strong showing like he did on Sunday, when he played 16:02, his third-highest total of the season.

Dumba’s contract has dictated the Stars’ giving him more chances to find a regular fit in the lineup, and his multiple injuries this season along with a bad flug bug going through the lineup also threw off the Stars’ chemistry on the blue line a fair bit. But with the trade deadline coming up in about six weeks, now would be the time for Smith to show he’s a reliable option when the Stars need him.

As Alex Petrovic showed last spring, you never know when you might be called upon. But Smith, like Blümel, is getting a chance to show he can help the team win. Whatever role either player has to win, it will be up to each of them to win the battle in every game they play, starting tonight.

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Carolina and Dallas last met back in Raleigh on the Monday before Thanksgiving, when the Stars blew a 3-1 lead in the third period to go down 4-3, only to come back to tie it 4-4 with five minutes to play on a Miro Heiskanen snipe before giving up the game-winner to Martin Nečas on a Hurricanes power play.

That loss stung a lot, and the stinker of a loss to Chicago two days later just made things worse. But this time around, Dallas doesn’t have either of Tyler Seguin or Mason Marchment, who combined for two of the Stars’ goals in that one.

However, Carolina is coming off a game yesterday, when they beat Chicago in overtime (in Chicago). So, one would think that would give Dallas a tiny advantage, as they had a day off to rest yesterday. We shall see how it goes, though.

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Penultimate note: the Stars’ next two games are national broadcasts, so you may not be able to watch either of them on Victory+.

Today’s game is streaming on ESPN+ (or Hulu, if you have that, yes really, Hulu), while Friday’s game against Vegas is on the real, actual ESPN, so you’ll need a package that carries ESPN to watch that one. John Buccigross also said on Twitter that he will be calling both games.

For alternatives to the national broadcast, the Dallas Morning News SportsDay app does stream the Ticket radio broadcast with Josh and Razor, so the truly dedicated Stars fans might choose to connect their phone’s audio to their television sound bar in order to watch the ESPN broadcast while listening to their home broadcast. But I am not here to tell you what to do, this time.

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Final note: Jamie and Jessica Benn announced yesterday on Instagram that they are having a baby, so a big congratulations to the happy couple.

Side note: If I were television producer, I would be moving heaven and earth to get Benn and Tyler Seguin to star in a reality series about their respective journeys into fatherhood. B-side note: do you think they’ve already agreed to name their kids after each other? Middle names at the very least, right?