Stars scheduled to play delayed season opener, host Predators

The Dallas Stars are scheduled to finally begin their season Friday, and Miro Heiskanen said he can't wait.

"I'm really excited to get it going," the defenseman said this week. "That's what everybody's waiting for. It's been a long wait, everyone's playing right now, I'm really excited and the whole team is really excited."
The Stars open their season against the Nashville Predators at American Airlines Center (8:30 p.m. ET; ESPN+, FS-SW, FS-TN, NHL.TV) after Dallas had its first four scheduled games postponed because of an outbreak of COVID-19.
The Predators (2-1-0) haven't played since a 4-2 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes 4-2 on Monday. Nashville's game against Carolina on Tuesday was postponed because of coronavirus issues with the Hurricanes.
The wait has been longer for the Stars, who haven't played since a 2-0 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final on Sept. 28, 2020.
"We need to get it going," Dallas general manager Jim Nill said. "We're like every other team, we're excited. You come to training camp and you want to get your season started and everyone is working hard toward that.
"All of a sudden, we got hit with the virus, and it hit us hard and quick. That was the thing that shouldn't be surprising, but just how quick it spread. It went fast, and it is what it is. But we're starting to get back now to a good portion of our team, so I think guys are itching to get going."
The NHL announced Jan. 8 that six Stars players and two staff members tested positive for COVID-19. Their facility was closed and the NHL announced Dallas would not start its season before Jan. 19.
The Stars resumed practice Jan. 12, the same day the NHL announced 17 Dallas players tested positive for COVID-19. Most did not have symptoms, and each was recovering without complications.
"It was concerning because it started out as a couple of guys," Nill said. "All of a sudden, the next day you wake up and you start to get the reports from the doctors and the testing people and it started to happen fast. Players have families, too, so that was a major concern.
"We're part of society now. We're not in the bubble anymore, so it affects a lot of people. We wanted to make sure we got control of it and that's why we decided to just shut it down and kind of catch our wind a little bit and analyze a little bit closer."
The Stars said they believe they'll have most of the players who tested positive in the lineup Friday.
Some Dallas players practiced last weekend for the first time since Jan. 6, including defenseman Esa Lindell and forward Jason Dickinson on Saturday, and Heiskanen and defenseman Jamie Oleksiak on Sunday.
"I came down early this year and everything thinking I could get a head start, especially the way Ontario was," Dickinson said. "You couldn't really skate there, it was really complicated to get ice. And it feels like I lost all that time. You're sitting there. Every day goes by that you're sitting on your couch, thinking, 'I'm not doing anything, I'm not getting better, I'm not improving.' It was frustrating, to say the least."
The Stars have skated hard before the end of each practice to work on endurance and catch up to other teams, with some of them having been playing games since Jan. 13.
Dallas had a 60-minute scrimmage Monday, and coach Rick Bowness said he tried to arrange lines and defense pairs as much as possible to simulate a game.
He wanted to see the chemistry on the second line with Jason Robertson, Joe Pavelski and Alexander Radulov. The top line of Jamie Benn, Roope Hintz and Denis Gurianov was matched against the checking line of Andrew Cogliano, Radek Faksa and Joel Kiviranta to replicate the challenges they will face against actual foes.
"That was a big part of what we were looking for and the importance to keep the same pace up for 60 minutes," Bowness said. "We're very happy with both of those areas. Some things we've been working on, we're seeing some improvement there. So overall, the intensity that we need there was there. The conditioning, we're not going to get in game shape until we play in games. You've got to get out there against the opposition."
There could be rust for the Stars, who were 37-24-8 (.594 points percentage) and finished fourth in the Western Conference last season.
"We're hoping not," Nill said. "But we've been around long enough to know that that's probably the biggest concern. These teams, they have the rust out of them. They're starting to get going. They've had the one, two, three games that they've played and we're going to be starting out fresh. But the coaches have done a great job preparing the players and it is what it is. There are going to be different circumstances and we're going to have to adjust to them."
The postponed games against the Florida Panthers have been rescheduled for Feb. 22 and May 3. The postponed games against the Tampa Bay Lightning (Jan. 17 and Jan. 19) are scheduled for May 4 and May 10.
Dallas was two wins from the Stanley Cup last season and has high expectations again. But for now, the focus is solely on the first game.
"I think ready is an understatement at this point," Dickinson said. "We're just anxious to get going. It's been long enough."