Disappointed by injury, Cogliano aims to return 'as fast as possible'

Forward Andrew Cogliano practiced at Comerica Center in Frisco on Monday morning. But it appears he will miss a third straight game with an upper-body injury when the Stars open a three-game homestand Tuesday night against the New York Rangers at American Airlines Center.
Cogliano was the only player in practice wearing a blue jersey Monday, an indication he might not be ready to go for Tuesday's game, and Stars coach Jim Montgomery confirmed the speculation after practice.
"Very doubtful for tomorrow," Montgomery said when asked for an update on Cogliano. "Probable for Thursday."

This is the first time Cogliano has missed games due to injury in his 12-year NHL career. The only other time he has had to sit out was last season when the NHL suspended him two games for interference on Los Angeles forward Adrian Kempe.
Missing time to the suspension ended Cogliano's consecutive games played streak at 830 games, fourth longest in NHL history. Until last week, he had gone 929 games without missing time due to injury.
"Brutal. Brutal. It sucks," Cogliano said of sitting out the last two games. "I've been out once in my career -- two games to a stupid suspension, in my opinion. But it's not fun this time of the year. These are the games you want to play in; these are the games you want to be in the battle. You want to be competing as hard as you can.

"It sucked, to be honest, to sit out and watch the guys play, but I think they did a good job and that made it a lot easier knowing that we got a couple of big wins and guys played really well. Now it's about getting myself back and adding to what the guys have created the last little bit."
Cogliano was injured in last Tuesday's game at Vegas when he was hit near the benches by Golden Knights forward Ryan Reaves and hit the boards hard. He said he thought there could be an issue as soon as he took the hit.
"I had a decent idea. I am more mad at myself that I got hurt because I really didn't see him coming," Cogliano said. "He came out of my blind spot and obviously to get hit by him there are going to be some repercussions to it and things are going to happen. But I kind of knew something was up when I got hit."
The Stars acquired Cogliano from Anaheim on Jan. 14 in exchange for forward Devin Shore. The 31-year-old has three points (one goal, two assists) in 17 games with the Stars.
"I want to get back in the lineup as fast as possible here," he said.
"These are the times you want to be playing. I don't want to be missing these games."

Klingberg expected to be OK after missing practice

Defenseman John Klingberg did not practice Monday due to illness. Klingberg is expected to play Tuesday against the Rangers, according to Stars coach Jim Montgomery.
"He's just sick," Montgomery said of Klingberg. "We told him to stay home and get ready for tomorrow."

Bishop to make start against Rangers

Montgomery said Ben Bishop will get the start in goal Tuesday against the Rangers. Bishop is coming off a 29-save effort in Saturday's win at St. Louis. Montgomery discussed how he might split goaltending duties between Bishop and Anton Khudobin down the stretch.
"It's going to be game to game, but we see more one and a half to one just because we are giving up a lot of shots and they've been the most consistent part of our game," Montgomery said.
"We want them rested and if that means alternating because of the game prior, but Ben's last game wasn't all that demanding physically and we had two days off, so we are going to go with Bish tomorrow."

Odds and ends

This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.
Mark Stepneski has covered the Stars for DallasStars.com since 2012. Follow him on Twitter @StarsInsideEdge.