Carrick slated to return on defense as Stars face Blues

The Dallas Stars will make a couple of lineup changes as they take on the St. Louis Blues tonight at Enterprise Center in the second game of their three-game road trip.
Defenseman Connor Carrick will come in on defense. Carrick has played one game since being activated from injured reserve, logging just 6:32 of ice time in the 3-2 overtime loss to Montreal on Dec. 31. He looked rusty in his first game after missing two months, and he's sat out the past three games as the Stars have tried to improve his conditioning and get him up to speed.
"I feel good. I feel good," Carrick said." It's all about the game. You've just got to get in the flow of the game. That's the challenge as a player is to present yourself as a trustworthy guy for the defense coach to put out so he's not getting heat from the head coach.
"That stuff runs downhill. The easier I can make it to put me on the ice worry-free, the more ice I am going to get."

Carrick will skate on the third pair tonight with Taylor Fedun.
"We think it's a good matchup for him," Stars coach Jim Montgomery said of Carrick's return tonight. "And he's in better shape. He's had three or four really good practices and skates here. St. Louis is a really hard forechecking team, big and heavy, so we decided he was a better matchup."

With Carrick coming in tonight, Julius Honka will sit as a healthy scratch after playing the last five games.
At forward, Valeri Nichushkin will draw back into the lineup after being scratched in Sunday's 5-1 loss at Winnipeg. Nichushkin will skate on a line with Radek Faksa and Tyler Pitlick. Blake Comeau will move off the Faksa line and play right wing with center Roope Hintz and left wing Mattias Janmark.
"I really like Comeau on the right side and he and Janmark we're really playing well with [Jason Dickinson]," Montgomery said. "Val with Faksa and Pitlick gives us two lines that we can roll out and play against anybody."
The top line of Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin, and Alexander Radulov stays intact as will the line of Devin Shore, Jason Spezza, and Erik Condra. Brett Ritchie will sit out tonight as a healthy scratch after playing the past two games.
Ben Bishop will get the start in goal.
The Stars (22-17-4) come into tonight's game in the first wild-card spot in the Western Conference and just percentage points behind Colorado for third place in the Central Division.

Opposition watch: St. Louis Blues

The Blues (17-19-4) won 3-0 at Philadelphia on Monday night. Jordan Binnington stopped 25 shots for a shutout in his first NHL start as the Blues handed the Flyers their seventh straight loss.
Brayden Schenn, Vladimir Tarasenko and David Perron all scored for the Blues, who won for the second time in the last five games.
The Blues did not skate this morning since they played last night.

Stat pack

Tonight's game

Who: Dallas Stars at St. Louis Blues
Where: Enterprise Center
When: 7:00 p.m.
TV: Fox Sports Southwest
Radio:The Ticket 1310-AM/96.7-FM

Stars projected lineup

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

Blues projected lineup

Jaden Schwartz - Brayden Schenn - Vladimir Tarasenko
Robby Fabbri - Ryan O'Reilly - David Perron
Zach Sanford - Robert Thomas - Pat Maroon
Sammy Blais - Ivan Barbashev - Oskar Sundqvist
Carl Gunnarsson - Alex Pietrangelo
Jay Bouwmeester - Colton Parayko
Joel Edmundson - Robert Bortuzzo
Jake Allen
Jordan Binnington
Scratched: Vince Dunn
Injured:Tyler Bozak (upper body), Alexander Steen (upper body)
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.