First Shift \ud83c\udfd2<\/p>\n
Casey DeSmith<\/a> said it best Friday: You have to work your way out of a slump.<\/p>\n That\u2019s what the Stars are trying to do right now as they held a practice full of intention after a 2-1 loss to the Islanders, and are hoping they will be in a good place Saturday when they take on the Pittsburgh Penguins.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery team goes through it,\u201d DeSmith said. \u201cNobody is happy about losing and obviously the vibes aren\u2019t as high, but you\u2019ve got to keep them somewhat high to get out of it. You can\u2019t just go to \u2018miserable land,\u2019 you have to stay positive and keep working.\u201d<\/p>\n While coach Glen Gulutzan said he hasn\u2019t picked his starting goalie for Saturday\u2019s 5 p.m. local start, DeSmith could get the call against his former team. The 34-year-old played nine seasons in the Penguins organization and has a lot of friends in the area.<\/p>\n What\u2019s more, he\u2019s 14-7-5 on the year and has a 2.40 GAA and .908 save percentage.<\/p>\n \u201cCasey has been great for us,\u201d Gulutzan said. \u201cHe\u2019s a big reason why we are where we\u2019re at.\u201d<\/p>\n Dallas still sits second in the NHL at 43-18-11 (97 points) despite a recent 1-4-1 slump. But with Minnesota creeping back closer in the standings, it would be nice to shake out of it quickly. The Stars won\u2019t have a morning skate on Saturday, so they ran through a spirited practice on Friday.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not where we want to be right now, so we had kind of morning skate with a little bit more intensity to get us ready,\u201d Gulutzan said. \u201cWe\u2019ve just got to keep on it and even get stingier in our play. I still think we\u2019re doing some good things offensively, but if we can limit even more of what we\u2019re giving up, that would be the best way to get out of these things.\u201d<\/p>\n The Stars were much better defensively in the 2-1 loss on Long Island, and the hope is that the possible return of\u00a0Rantanen could help Saturday. Rantanen suffered a lower body injury playing for Finland at the Olympics and hasn\u2019t played since. Rantanen led the Stars in scoring at the time of the injury and was eighth in the league with 69 points (20 goals, 49 assists) in 54 games, so his return would be huge.<\/p>\n Gulutzan would not confirm the return, but said Rantanen is close.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s very close to play,\u201d Gulutzan said. \u201cHe\u2019ll certainly play one of these games. If it\u2019s not Saturday then certainly it will be Sunday. We\u2019ll see how he\u2019s feeling after today\u2019s skate.\u201d<\/p>\n Another former Penguin who is returning home is forward Michael Bunting<\/a> (who was acquired from Nashville at the trade deadline) and he said he would be excited playing in a game with Rantanen.<\/p>\n \u201cI know what he brings to the table,\u201d Bunting said. \u201cHe\u2019s a big boy, he\u2019s very offensive, he thinks the game really well. He\u2019s a moose out there. Getting him back would give us a boost.\u201d<\/p>\n Sam Steel<\/a> suffered a lower body injury on Thursday and flew back to Texas for evaluation.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s probably a hip flexor or a groin, so we\u2019ll see how bad it is,\u201d Gulutzan said. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t as bad this morning as we maybe thought yesterday, so that\u2019s a good sign. But we do need to send him back to get it looked at.\u201d<\/p>\n The absence of Steel and the possible return of Rantanen could mean some line juggling. Duchene had a maintenance day on Friday, and Rantanen skated mostly with Wyatt Johnston<\/a>, who was his linemate before the injury. The question is who would be the third man on that line. Could they load it up with Jason Robertson<\/a>, who has been playing with Jonhston, or could they put a player like Bunting or Justin Hryckowian<\/a> with Johnston?<\/p>\n It\u2019s a lot to decide, but every player would likely want some ice time with Rantanen.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s very talkative and chats a lot. He has an outgoing personality and you like that,\u201d Bunting said of his practice time with Rantanen. \u201cI talk quite a bit. I\u2019ve always been a very vocal guy in the room and on the ice. I\u2019m still new, but I\u2019m sure guys are starting to realize that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"First Shift \ud83c\udfd2 Casey DeSmith said it best Friday: You have to work your way out of a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":150680,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[73,75,74],"class_list":{"0":"post-150679","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh","8":"tag-pittsburgh","9":"tag-pittsburgh-headlines","10":"tag-pittsburgh-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150679\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}