Lehtonen in goal, Hanzal returns as Stars face Islanders

Kari Lehtonen will get a second straight start and go for career win No. 300 tonight as the Dallas Stars take on the New York Islanders at Barclays Center.
Lehtonen is coming off a sharp 24-save effort in Monday's 2-1 shootout win over the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden. This will be Lehtonen's eighth start of the season. He is 4-2-1 as a starter with a 2.42 goals against average and .914 save percentage. Overall, he is 4-4-1 with a 2.49 goals against average and .909 save percentage.

"It's earned because he has played so well," said Stars coach Ken Hitchcock. "We got a great start to the road trip and we just want to keep it going here. Ben [Bishop] is going to get in here right away, next game or whatever. We'll see. It gives us a chance to see how Kari looks after we have some success, too.
"We'll see how that looks."
Center Martin Hanzal, who has missed the last seven games with a hamstring injury, will return tonight. He is expected to center a line with Gemel Smith and Brett Ritchie. Hanzal has been slowed by injuries all season. He missed all of camp and most of the preseason with an ankle injury, and he's sat out 12 games with a variety of injuries.

"These have been nagging injuries and this has been the longest one," Hitchcock said. "We've kind of waited as long as we can on it and we'll just kind of see, evaluate after the game and see how he feels. He looks terrific on the ice, and we've worked the heck out of him. He's battled in every game-like situation, and we'll see how he feels."
With Hanzal coming back into the lineup, Jason Dickinson is the expected scratch at forward. The top three lines are expected to remain the same with Tyler Seguin centering Remi Elie and Devin Shore, Jamie Benn skating with Radek Faksa and Tyler Pitlick, and Alexander Radulov playing on a line with Jason Spezza and Mattias Janmark.
Left wing Antoine Roussel will sit out a second straight game with an elbow injury suffered in Saturday's game against Vegas. Hitchcock said he Roussel is close to returning.
No changes on defense tonight. Julius Honka, who scored the Stars' lone regulation goal Monday, will get a second straight game, and Jamie Oleksiak will sit out as the healthy scratch on the blue line.
The Stars (17-13-1) come into tonight's game with four wins in their last five road games.

Islanders Watch

Jaroslav Halak will get the start in goal tonight for the Islanders. Halak, who is coming off a 31-save effort in a 3-1 win over Washington on Monday, is 9-7-1 with a 2.82 goals against average and .909 save percentage. Defenseman Johnny Boychuk, who has missed the past three games with a lower-body injury, is a game-time decision. The Islanders are 9-1-2 at home this season and lead the league in home scoring at 4.50 goals per game.

Tonight's Game

Who:Dallas Stars at New York Islanders
Where: Barclays Center
When:6 p.m.
TV:Fox Sports Southwest
Radio:The Ticket 1310 AM/96.7 FM

Stars Projected Lineup

Remi Elie - Tyler Seguin - Devin Shore
Jamie Benn - Radek Faksa - Tyler Pitlick
Mattias Janmark - Jason Spezza - Alexander Radulov
Gemel Smith - Martin Hanzal - Brett Ritchie
Esa Lindell - John Klingberg
Dan Hamhuis - Greg Pateryn
Stephen Johns - Julius Honka
Kari Lehtonen
Ben Bishop
Scratched:Jamie Oleksiak, Jason Dickinson
Injured:Antoine Roussel (elbow), Marc Methot (knee)

Islanders Projected Lineup

Anders Lee - John Tavares - Josh Bailey
Andrew Ladd - Mathew Barzal - Jordan Eberle
Brock Nelson - Anthony Beauvillier - Joshua Ho-Sang
Jason Chimera - Casey Cizikas - Cal Clutterbuck
Nick Leddy - Ryan Pulock
Calvin de Haan - Adam Pelech
Dennis Seidenberg - Scott Mayfield
Jaroslav Halak
Thomas Greiss
Scratched:Alan Quine
Injured: Johnny Boychuk (lower body), Thomas Hickey (upper body), Nikolay Kulemin (upper body)
Mark Stepneski is an independent writer whose posts on DallasStars.com reflect his own opinions and do not represent official statements from the Dallas Stars. You can follow Mark on Twitter at @StarsInsideEdge.