There were a few key topics of discussion on Wednesday in Frisco.
DALLAS - The first question head coach Pete DeBoer fielded following Wednesday’s practice at Comerica Center didn’t come as much of a surprise.
He was, of course, asked about the status of veteran forward Roope Hintz for Thursday night’s season opener against the Blues at American Airlines Center.
“I would call him game-time. We’ve been extra-cautious here, although he’s done a lot of stuff on his own that you don’t see,” explained DeBoer. “We’ll see how he feels [Thursday] morning.”
Hintz is battling an upper-body injury that prevented him from playing any preseason games.
The 26-year-old Finn laced up his skates for the on-ice session, though, which DeBoer called “another step” and “a good sign” under the circumstances, so things could be trending in the right direction.
“We’re not going to jeopardize anything long-term to rush him in,” insisted DeBoer. “If he’s ready, he’ll play, and if he’s not, then we’ll use that extra time [between upcoming games].”
A healthy Hintz will be a critical component for a group that is expected to contend for the Central Division title and make another lengthy playoff run after reaching the Western Conference Finals last season.
DeBoer’s troops are well aware of the prognostications going around, but captain Jamie Benn says that chatter isn’t affecting their collective preparation.
“We’ve been in situations like this before. It’s about managing expectations now. It doesn’t really matter what people say about our group or what they think or their predictions, what matters is how we feel in here,” said Benn. “We believe in each other. We think we’ve got a good group and we have what it takes, so it all starts [on Thursday night] by getting off on the right foot.”
Tyler Seguin shared similar thoughts after the workout.
When you’ve played as many years in the NHL as he has, you already know how to put any potential interference aside.
“As far as outside noise, there’s been a lot of that over the years here, and it’s never been a distraction for this locker room. We’ve been on the cusp of it a few times in these last handful of years and we’re just looking to take the next step, and Day 1 of the journey starts [on Thursday night],” explained Seguin. “Noise is noise, and in the locker room we have a sound machine, so it just blocks it all out.”
As a goaltender, Jake Oettinger definitely knows a thing or two about setting distractions aside.
DeBoer was asked about helping the Stars starter maintain a healthy work-rest balance in the months to come.
“[Goalie coach] Jeff Reese and I have a loose plan here for the first two weeks of the year. We want to get Scott Wedgewood in a game. We have some spacing in our games where we wouldn’t be overtaxing Jake, but we need to keep Wedgie sharp in order to use him the way we want to use him,” shared DeBoer. “We had individual meetings this week and met with both goalies, and I think the message there was if they’re both healthy, in a perfect world, we definitely want to use both and we want to use Wedgie more and play Jake less.”
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