Stars lose Matt Duchene 3 months to core surgery

The word came straight from the team, and the beat reporters had it out within a minute.

Lia Assimakopoulos

@Lassimak

Matt Duchene had surgery to repair a core injury and is expected to miss three months, the Stars just announced.

This didn't come out of nowhere. Duchene opened the season on injured reserve and hasn't suited up yet, so Dallas has been playing without him from opening night. Monday just put a timeline on it. 3 months from now puts his return somewhere around mid-January if the recovery goes to plan, which means about half a season gone before he plays a single shift.

David Pagnotta

@TheFourthPeriod

Another man down: Stars announce Matt Duchene had surgery to “repair a core injury” and will be out approx 3 months

Another man down is right. The Stars are 2-2-1 out of the gate and already patching holes up front. Duchene was a real contributor last year with 16 goals and 45 points in 57 games, and the value is in how he plays both ways: he can center a line or slide out to the wing, so he plugs whatever hole opens in the top 9. That flexibility is exactly what you miss when the injuries start piling up. The last time anyone saw him in a game was the first-round series the Minnesota Wild knocked Dallas out of, which ended the Stars' run of 3 straight Western Conference Final trips.

There's at least some good news on the same day. Joel Kiviranta blocked a shot in the 5-0 win over San Jose last week and was supposed to miss about a week, and Radek Faksa has been on the shelf too. Both were on the ice for practice Monday, and Glen Gulutzan sounds ready to put them back in.

Lia Assimakopoulos

@Lassimak

Glen Gulutzan says he expects Joel Kiviranta and Radek Faksa to be good to go tomorrow.

Getting Kiviranta and Faksa back Tuesday steadies the bottom of the lineup, but neither one replaces what Duchene brings offensively. Gulutzan will have to find that scoring somewhere else in the group for the next 3 months. If the Stars are still hovering around.500 by Christmas, the Duchene hole will be a big part of why. If they're winning anyway, getting a healthy veteran back in January could be a nice midseason lift.