Dallas Stars head coach Glen Gulutzan provided an update at practice on Wednesday on forward Matt Duchene, who left Tuesday night’s home opener in the third period with an injury.
Gulutzan labeled Duchene day-to-day and said he has not yet ruled him out for the Stars’ home game against the Vancouver Canucks Thursday night.
Duchene went to the locker room after taking a big hit from Wild defenseman Jake Middleton just over two minutes into the third period of Tuesday’s 5-2 win.
Duchene was skating in the neutral zone when Middleton went shoulder-first into the veteran forward. Duchene never returned.
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His teammate, defenseman Alexander Petrovic, instigated a fight with Middleton after. Both players were penalized for fighting, and Petrovic was given an additional two minutes for instigating. Minnesota scored their first of two power-play goals on that power play, and the game started to turn.
“I liked the response from Petro, certainly,” Gulutzan said. “I didn’t like the hit. I thought that it was high. Usually, my history here is they usually run on the side of more aggressive in their call there, but they didn’t.”
Duchene scored his first goal of the season on a Dallas power play in the second period of Tuesday’s game. He is in his third year in Dallas, signing a four-year, $18 million deal in the offseason.
The Stars are already depleted at forward, as captain Jamie Benn will miss at least a month after having surgery for a collapsed lung and Oskar Bäck is out for at least another week with an undisclosed injury.
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