After a week of practices and scrimmages in Cedar Park, Lindy Ruff's Dallas Stars open their preseason game schedule on Tuesday night with a road game against Gerard Gallant's Florida Panthers at the BB&T Center in Sunrise, FL. Game time is 6:30 p.m. CDT.
The big news out of camp on Monday was the return of Stars captain Jamie Benn to the ice for the scrimmage. The reigning Art Ross Trophy winner, who underwent surgeries on both hips shortly after last season, suited up for Team Victory Green and scored a goal in his side's 7-6 win over Team White.
Benn is not slated to play in game action until the final match or two of the preseason. He is on target to be ready for opening night of the regular season on Oct. 8 against the Pittsburgh Penguins at the American Airlines Center. Likewise, Ales Hemsky (offseason hip surgery) should be ready for the opener.
One of the key areas of emphasis by Ruff during training camp is to get his team into consistent two-way work habits in order to improve teamwide commitment to their play without the puck as well as attacking. After Monday's scrimmage, Ruff told Stars Inside Edge writer Mark Stepneski that there some areas of the play he saw in the scrimmage that need to be addressed so they don't carry over into subsequent days.
“I thought it was loose today compared to the previous days,… Ruff said to Inside Edge. “For me, the third or fourth day of camp and the scrimmage tends to become about scoring a little bit more. I thought tremendous speed at the start of that game, speed you can’t defend against. We did some things with the puck that I don’t like and I am going to try to tighten that up over the next couple days.…
After Tuesday's preseason game against the Panthers, the Stars will be in St. Louis to take on Ken Hitchcock's Blues on Thursday evening.