He's back! Miro Heiskanen returns to the lineup Tuesday against Ducks

Stars (36-25-3, 75 points) vs. Ducks (27-29-11, 65 points)

He's back.
After missing 11 games with mononucleosis, Miro Heiskanen returns to the lineup Tuesday night against the Anaheim Ducks.
The addition isn't small, as Heiskanen leads the Stars in average time on ice per game at 24:46 and has 29 points (four goals, 25 assists) in 52 games.
"You're sitting there in the dressing room looking at Miro and you're feeling pretty good," said Stars coach Rick Bowness after the morning skate in Anaheim. "Breaking the puck out, joining the rush, doing all the little things that help us be a better team. It gives us a big boost in confidence when Miro is in the locker room."

The Stars went 6-5-0 without Heiskanen, so the impact was significant. They hope the return will be just as important.
"We're a game above .500 without him. He's a dominant factor in every game, and we missed him," Bowness said. "We were able to keep our head above water, we were able to stay in the hunt, so all things considered, when you lose a guy like Miro, you're afraid you're going to fall behind and we didn't."
Heiskanen thought he had the flu when the illness began, but then he tested positive for mononucleosis. That makes the recovery a bit different. Bowness said they're targeting 15-17 minutes of ice time tonight and will try to make sure Heiskanen can handle the strain.
"We're going to watch his minutes very closely because we certainly don't want a setback and that's a concern from the medical staff," Bowness said. "It won't be 25."
Heiskanen said he didn't feel good earlier in his recovery, but is doing well after Monday's full practice in Anaheim.
"First couple of weeks, I couldn't really do a lot. Had to stay at home and just rest," he said. "It sucks, but it is what it is."
He said he missed his teammates and wants to get back to a regular schedule.
"I'm feeling really good," he said. "Ready to be back with the boys and ready to play again."

What to watch

The Stars had one of the hottest power plays earlier in the season, and it was a huge reason the team was able to either start fast or come back from deficits. However, the man advantage has struggled in recent weeks, and has done so with the game on the line at key times.
Maybe the most obvious example was Saturday when Esa Lindell had a wide-open net to tie the game on the power play in the third period, and hit the post. However, that was just one example of a bad stretch.
"It makes a difference if you can get on there," Stars forward Joe Pavelski said of the most recent failure. "We had some looks at the end to tie that game up, and it didn't go in the net. It was one of those things that you don't know how it doesn't go in at times."
Still, there's some consistency with the problem. In the past 27 games, the Stars' power play has cashed in at about half the rate of success as the first 37. That's huge. Even while the team's been able to make a run in the standings, things would be much easier if Dallas simply fulfilled its potential with the man advantage.
"We're just overhandling the puck. The puck has got to move quicker, and they've got to work harder," Bowness said. "You can't be one and done in terms of we take a shot, they get it, ice it and we have to go back and get it. Our compete for loose pucks has to improve, but more than anything, move the puck quicker.
"Don't get it, stickhandle and then move it, that's a penalty killer's delight," he added. "We need them to work harder, we need them to move the puck quicker, we need more shots because if we get more shots, we're going to score more goals. There are power plays where we're not even getting a shot on net, and it's all of the above. Too slow moving it, not shooting when we have the opportunity, it's all of the above."

Lineup update

Heiskanen will replace Thomas Harley in the lineup, and D-pairs are expected to be very fluid.
Jake Oettinger will make his first career appearance against the Ducks.
Here is a possible lineup:
Robertson-Hintz-Pavelski
Namestnikov-Seguin-Gurianov
Peterson-Benn-Radulov
Raffl-Faksa-Glendening
Lindell-Klingberg
Suter-Hakanpaa
Hanley-Heiskanen
Oettinger
Wedgewood

Numbers

9

The Ducks haven't won in their past nine games (0-7-2). They're coming off a 4-1 loss at San Jose on Saturday and have been outscored 41-17 in that span.

0.52

Pavelski has tallied 36 points in (14 goals, 22 assists) in 68 games against the Ducks for a points per game average of 0.52. That's the lowest against any opponent other than San Jose (no points in two games) and the Islanders (eight points in 19 games).

75-32-15

Dallas is 75-32-15 lifetime against the Ducks, including 4-1-0 in the past five meetings. This is the first game of the season between the two teams.

He said it

"We generated 22 scoring chances against Vancouver, and all four lines were generating chances. Every line was creating offense, the puck just didn't go in the net. We liked what we saw, and we'll start that way, and we'll adjust if we have to."-- Bowness on why he's not changing forward lines after a 4-1 loss to Vancouver Saturday
This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.
Mike Heikais a Senior Staff Writer for DallasStars.com and has covered the Stars since 1994. Follow him on Twitter @MikeHeika.