Thursday Practice Update: Miro Heiskanen "Week-to-Week" As Stars' Injury Woes Continue

Nils Lundkvist is also dealing with an upper-body injury

The Dallas Stars will have to do without their top defenseman for a while, as Miro Heiskanen is “week to week” after suffering an apparent knee injury in Vegas after Mark Stone collided with Heiskanen, pushing it far further inward than a knee ought to go.

DeBoer said Heiskanen had an MRI yesterday, and is seeing a specialist today. If there’s good news in there for Stars fans, it’s that the Stars didn’t have to send Jim Nill out to announce a season-ending injury, so that does suggest that Heiskanen is at least a possibility to return before the end of the season.

DeBoer termed Heiskanen “doubtful” to participate in the 4 Nations Face-Off that begins in a little over a week, and that’s not surprising. Team Finland, of course, already had the thinnest blue line in the tournament. Now it likely has a gaping hole on its presumptive top pairing, so Jere Lehtinen has his work cut out for him, too.

If you want more speculation, then I can tell you that one doctor friend of mine who works with professional athletes in another state watched the hit, and said his “hot take” (his words) was that it wasn’t a minor injury, but that Heiskanen may be able to avoid needing surgery. Of course the specialist Heiskanen is meeting with actually gets to see the MRI and everything, so speculation isn’t all that useful.

You can see replays of the collision on Twitter, if you’d like. DeBoer reiterated today what he said after the game the other night: the officials ought to have called a major in order to do a video review of the incident. Mark Stone isn’t a dirty player, but he does clearly make a desperation dive at the puck, and that results in an injury. Just like players will instinctively stick out a leg and accidentally knee a player, you’re responsible for your actions. Stone’s left skate gets put off by Roope Hintz’s stick, but he’s the one who makes a very concerted dive across Heiskanen for the puck, and you can’t do that.