Shore to miss one to two weeks with lower-body injury

Devin Shore's injury is pretty much what the Dallas Stars expected.
The winger will miss one to two weeks with the lower-body injury he suffered in Monday's game against the Columbus Blue Jackets. Shore was injured in the first period when he went down awkwardly in the corner after getting tangled up with Columbus defenseman David Savard.
"It's somewhere between a week to two weeks, probably looking at 10 days max," said Stars coach Jim Montgomery.

HEY HEIKA: [Which legend should be next to have their jersey retired by Stars?]
Shore is tied for third on the team in goals (five) and tied for fifth on the team in points (11). Shore has been playing a top-six role for the Stars recently, and with him going out of the lineup, Montgomery will need to do some juggling.
In Wednesday's practice, Brett Ritchie and Jason Dickinson skated on the second line with Jason Spezza. Montgomery said that Ritchie would be in that spot for Friday's game against the Boston Bruins at American Airlines Center.
"I think Ritchie has done a lot of good things for us this year and I think it is time to reward him with an opportunity to play in a more minute role and also an opportunity to provide offense," Montgomery said.

"He's getting his opportunity Friday night playing with Spezza. I am not sure if it will still be [Dickinson] there; we were just kind of looking at things."
Ritchie, who returned Monday after missing four games with an upper-body infection/inflammation, has one assist in 12 games this year while playing in a fourth line role and averaging 9:34 of ice time per game.
Valeri Nichushkin, who had been playing with Spezza on the second line the past couple games, skated on the fourth line Wednesday with Mattias Janmark, Gemel Smith and injured center Martin Hanzal (back).
The top line of Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin, and Alexander Radulov remained intact as did the third line of Blake Comeau, Radek Faksa, and Tyler Pitlick.
The Stars had only five defensemen for Wednesday's practice since Ben Gleason was sent back to the AHL Tuesday and Marc Methot (lower body), Connor Carrick (foot), and Stephen Johns (post-traumatic headaches) all are still out.
The Stars will need to call up another defenseman for Friday's game. Montgomery said a decision would be made on which one after GM Jim Nill watches Texas play tonight.

Stars work to fire up power play

A good part of Wednesday's practiced focused on the power play, which has struggled recently. It was 0-for-4 and generated just one shot in Monday's 2-1 loss to Columbus. The power play is 4-for-34 (11.8 percent) over the past 13 games.
Montgomery didn't seem enthused with some of what he saw in practice Wednesday.
"I didn't like the entries and the power-play breakout," Montgomery said. "I didn't think we were attacking with pace or purpose. I didn't mind the in-zone part, got better as it progressed."
The top power-play unit remained the same with Benn, Seguin, Radulov, Spezza, and Miro Heiskanen. There was a new look to the second unit forward group with Pitlick, Faksa, and Ritchie joining defensemen Esa Lindell and Julius Honka.
"Faksa last year scored a lot of goals with tips, and we see him in practice and he is really good at the net front, he's a big body that can screen and he can win faceoffs," Montgomery said. "We figured Faksa and Ritchie together with Pitlick] would create a lot of puck retrievals and we're looking for new blood."
Faksa said there would be nothing fancy about the second unit.
"I think it is just to be simple," Faksa said. "Couple passes, shot to the net, good screen, win the battles and get the puck back. The power play can make a difference in the game."
*This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.*
***Mark Stepneski** has covered the Stars for DallasStars.com since 2012. Follow him on Twitter **[@StarsInsideEdge*.