John Klingberg's return to the lineup could be as soon as Monday

Rick Bowness said recently that he always has a Plan B lineup in his pocket in case his original lines aren't working in a game.
Heading into Monday's game at Columbus, he said he'd prefer not to allow himself that option.

"I want to go into [Monday] night without options," Bowness said after going full blender at practice in Frisco Sunday. "I don't even want to think about that. I'm changing the lines too much, and I get that, and I don't want to do that."
Through five games this season, Bowness has not only tried pretty much every iteration, but he's also done it within games on several occasions. Ironically, the moves have worked en route to a 3-2-0 record. Last game, he swapped several lines, and his team responded with a 3-2 overtime victory against the LA Kings. But Bowness said he's a fan of building line chemistry, and that's been a mantra since he became head coach in December 2019.
"You don't want it to seem like it's a panic move, but there's a difference between guys 'struggling and you think they're going to come,' and like nothing is happening here.' So you're standing here sayingnothing is happening, and we've got to do something here.'" Bowness said. "[Monday] night, I'm confident we won't need that plan."

There have been a few significant factors in the line Cuisinart this season. One, Jason Robertson has yet to play a game due to an upper-body injury and is also out for Monday's tilt at Columbus. That's forced Bowness to mess with the Roope Hintz line, which the coaching staff felt would be the go-to anchor line. Second, Bowness has really wanted to try Jamie Benn at center this year. The Stars captain stepped in for an injured Tyler Seguin at center last season and excelled in the pivot. But every time this year Bowness tried to get Benn and Seguin on separate lines, keeping the minutes up for both became a challenge, so he kept them together.
On Sunday, lines looked like this, and Bowness seemed to like the possibilities:
Gurianov-Hintz-Pavelski
Peterson-Benn-Radulov
Raffl-Faksa-Seguin
Kiviranta-Glendening-Kero
Gurianov moves from right wing to left wing, Seguin moves from center to right wing and Benn moves from left wing to center.
"If Jamie goes to center, somebody has to move to the wing," Bowness said. "Roope has played some left wing before, but he's a better center. We tried Faksy in the exhibition on left wing and he looked out of place, so in order to get Jamie to center, somebody has to move. Seggy's played some right wing. He'll still take faceoffs, but it's just a move to get Jamie back to center."
As for the combinations, Bowness laid out this reasoning. "Roope and Denis have played together before," he said. "I noticed the other night that both Roope and Denis are finally skating, they're both finally using their speed, they're pushing [defensemen] back and they're getting opportunities on the rush, so put them together and see if we can continue to do that."
It all makes sense on paper, but the game is played on the ice, and the Stars know they must be better. They currently allow the fourth most shots per game at 34.6 and are being outshot on average by 6.6 shots on goal per game.
"There's another level for this team to get going to and create a little bit more," Joe Pavelski said.

Bowness added that while he believes the quality scoring chances are very close, he also would like to see the shot differential be a little better. The first area is getting more shots on goal. The Stars rank 27th there at 28.0 per game.
"It's self-imposed," he said. "Sometimes, it's not the opposition, sometimes it's your reluctance to shoot and your failure to hit the net. We pass up way too many chances to put the puck on the net and we miss the net too much."
Bowness stopped practice Sunday and screamed at players to hit the net. It was a rare emotional display, and the message was clear.
"We're walking right down the middle of the ice and we're putting it on the glass," he said. "Inexcusable for me. That's not paying attention enough. "We're getting 2-on-1s, and a 2-on-1 should be two chances to score - the shot and the rebound. We're not even getting the one chance."
The return of John Klingberg could help in that category. The puck-moving defenseman has missed the past four games after getting his leg twisted in the season opener. The Stars have missed his calm presence and his ability to keep the puck in the offensive zone.
"He moves the puck so well, so hopefully we can spend less time on our zone," Bowness said "He adds offense, which we need badly. He's a big impact player offensively."
If things work the way the Stars would like, then maybe the line shuffling will at least slow down a little.
"You notice it a little bit," Pavelski said. "Obviously, some of it is on the players for not playing good enough and having chemistry early, but obviously there's certain structure in a game where it doesn't matter who you play with. You go with it. It'll flatten out, I would think, here. You're just trying to find a few certain things, so no worries."
Well, some worries, but nothing a good plan can't help resolve.
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This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.
Mike Heikais a Senior Staff Writer for DallasStars.com and has covered the Stars since 1994. Follow him on Twitter @MikeHeika.