Heiskanen on ice for Stars' skate on Monday, but will miss Game 2
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Defenceman Miro Heiskanen was on the ice for the Dallas Stars' morning skate on Monday, per TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun, but will not play in Game 2 of their series against the Colorado Avalanche.
Heiskanen, 25, has been recovering from knee surgery he underwent on Feb. 4, and has not played since Jan. 28.
The seventh-year player scored five goals and finished with 25 points in 50 games in the regular season for the Stars. He led the team in average ice time, at 25:09.
"Right now they are hoping he'll be available for that round one series, but I think it's not much more than hope at this point in time," TSN's Chris Johnston explained on Insider Trading last Tuesday. "It does sound like from sources close to the situation, it's very possible Heiskanen is not available at all during the first round to the Stars. He had a knee surgery, has been out since the end of January. He did resume skating at the end of March, but that's a pretty long period of time to be recovering.
"Obviously, when it comes to the playoffs, sometimes those injury timelines get shrunk and guys find a way to get back in the lineup, but right now it's far from a certainty we'll see Heiskanen in that first-round series."
Heiskanen skated on Saturday, but has yet to participate in practice or in any contact drills.
Dallas fell 5-1 in their series opener on home ice against the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday. It was the eighth consecutive series-opening loss the team has suffered since 2022, and the Stars are 0-7 in series openers under DeBoer.
"I guess the good news is we’ve come back and won more than our share of those series where we have (lost Game 1),” said DeBoer, whose teams made it to the West final each of the past two seasons. “So I think we got to concentrate on that.”
Game 2 goes from Dallas on Monday at 9:30p.m. ET / 6:30p.m. PT.