The Stars are on their way home from Canada.
Why did they need to go to Canada for a week? I don't know, but they went. Let's just accept it.
Did anything good come out of the Canadian experience? Well, Tom Wandell got hurt. That gives us a big negative on the ledger. He's expected to miss a month as he recovers from a shoulder injury. If anyone needed a healthy camp it was Wandell after missing a significant portion of last season. If healthy he easily should have made the roster. With the injury though I wouldn't be shocked to see him get some conditioning time in the AHL.
Preliminary line combinations were put out there for our perusal in PEI. Currently these groups are working together:
James Neal, Brad Richards, Loui Eriksson
Brenden Morrow, Mike Ribeiro, Jonathan Cheechoo
Steve Ott, Jamie Benn, Fabian Brunnstrom
Toby Petersen, Tom Wandell, Adam Burish
Brian Sutherby, Brandon Segal, and Krys Barch are on the outside looking in.
The Wandell injury should give Brian Sutherby a spot in the lineup. It shouldn't have taken an injury for him to crack the lineup, but it is what it is. I'll have more on Jonathan Cheechoo in the coming days, but as you can see he's being given a prominent role early in training camp. My modest research will probably show that to be a waste of training camp time, but the jury is still kind of out. His defensive ability can be useful to this team. In the top 6 though? Iffy. They need a defensive presence in the top 6, but he's never been an elite shutdown type forward so he would be questionable at best in a shutdown type role.
Tomorrow the Stars will take on the Tampa Bay Lightning in game one of the preseason. Baseball is in full swing in the metroplex, and now hockey is getting started. It will almost be like football season doesn't exist.
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