Coyotes at Stars preview

COYOTES (0-0-0) at STARS (0-0-0)
8:30 p.m. ET; FS-SW, FS-A, NHL.TV

The Game

Jim Montgomery will make his NHL coaching debut with the Dallas Stars when they host the Arizona Coyotes in the season opener for each team at American Airlines Center on Thursday.
Montgomery was hired on May 4 to replace Ken Hitchcock, who retired. He spent the past five seasons as coach at the University of Denver, where his teams advanced to the NCAA tournament each season and won the national championship in 2017.
Each team seeks to return to the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Dallas (42-32-8) finished sixth in the Central Division and has made the postseason twice since 2008; Arizona (29-41-12) was eighth in the Pacific Division and hasn't made the playoffs since 2012.
Defenseman Miro Heiskanen, 19, will make his NHL debut with the Stars, who selected him No. 3 in the 2017 NHL Draft.

Players to watch

Coyotes goaltender Antti Raanta was second in the NHL last season in save percentage (.930) and tied for second in goals-against average (2.24).
Stars center Tyler Seguin signed an eight-year contract extension on Sept. 13 after an NHL career-high 40-goal season.

They said it

"Everyone's super-excited. We've been waiting around a long time for this day to come. They are going to come out really hard, and we need to be ready for that." -- Coyotes defenseman and new captain Oliver Ekman-Larsson
"Guys were pretty tight this morning. I told them, 'I thought I was going to be the nervous one, not you guys.' … This was the message -- trying to loosen it up and focus on our process." -- Stars coach Jim Montgomery

Coyotes projected lineup

Richard Panik -- Derek Stepan -- Christian Fischer
Brendan Perlini -- Clayton Keller -- Vinnie Hinostroza
Michael Grabner -- Brad Richardson -- Nick Cousins
Lawson Crouse -- Dylan Strome -- Laurent Dauphin
Oliver Ekman-Larsson -- Jason Demers
Kevin Connauton -- Niklas Hjalmarsson
Alex Goligoski -- Jordan Oesterle
Antti Raanta
Darcy Kuemper
Scratched:Barrett Hayton, Mario Kempe, Ilya Lyubushkin
Injured:Alex Galchenyuk (lower body), Christian Dvorak (lower body), Jakob Chychrun (knee), Josh Archibald (lower body)

Stars projected lineup

Jamie Benn -- Tyler Seguin -- Alexander Radulov
Mattias Janmark -- Jason Spezza -- Blake Comeau
Devin Shore -- Radek Faksa -- Tyler Pitlick
Jason Dickinson -- Roope Hintz -- Brett Ritchie
Esa Lindell -- John Klingberg
Marc Methot -- Miro Heiskanen
Connor Carrick -- Roman Polak
Ben Bishop
Anton Khudobin
Scratched:Julius Honka, Gemel Smith
Injured:Stephen Johns (headaches), Valeri Nichushkin (lower body), Martin Hanzal (back)

Status report

If Hayton plays, he would become the youngest player in franchise history (18 years, 118 days). The Coyotes took him in the first round (No. 5) of the 2018 NHL Draft. ... Johns will be re-evaluated Friday and could play Saturday against the Winnipeg Jets.

Stat pack

The Coyotes have lost their past 10 games at American Airlines Center (0-7-3) since a 4-1 win on Feb. 7, 2012. … The Stars will open the season with four consecutive home games for the first time since 1975-76, when they were the Minnesota North Stars.