First Shift 🏒
Heiskanen has some rust to shake off.
But he has some time to do that.
Heiskanen returned to play on Tuesday after missing three and a half months (42 total games) of hockey following knee surgery in early February. He was limited to just under 15 minutes of time on ice, and he had both good and bad moments in Game 4 against the Winnipeg Jets. That’s kind of what the Stars expected from their top defenseman – and some say, top player – as he works his way back into very intense postseason play.
“He hasn't played in, what, 42 games since late January?,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said. “That's the first time I've ever seen him not catch a guy on a breakaway, so you can tell he's been out a while. But I thought it was a perfect night. He got 15 minutes in, made a huge play for us on the power play. You can see what he adds, just his composure and patience with the puck. It's hard not to play him more, you know, we've got to fight that urge. But talking to him after, he got through the game and he feels good. So, mission accomplished.”
And, quite honestly, that is a huge step for the Stars. Dallas has lost in the Western Conference Final in each of the past two seasons. It wants to go further this year, so it added players like Rantanen, Granlund and Cody Ceci in trades and called up defensemen Lian Bichsel and Alexander Petrovic from the minors. But if Dallas wants to really push, it needs a complete roster, and getting Heiskanen back to full strength is a huge part of that plan.
"He hasn't played a game in three months; the fact that he does that and then goes out there and he's still incredible just goes to show who Miro is,” said Stars goalie Jake Oettinger. “He's just going to get better and better. Just the calming presence he has when he's on the ice, he just carries the team."
Heiskanen was the third overall pick in the 2017 NHL Draft, so he has a pedigree. He has logged 475 regular-season games for the Stars and 86 more in the playoffs. Last season, he averaged 28:11 of ice time per game in the postseason (2nd in the NHL), so he definitely is an impact player. But the injury he sustained was significant and the recovery has been difficult.
It was January 28 when Vegas forward Mark Stone fell into Heiskanen’s knee in the middle of a game. The defenseman had surgery soon after and has been recovering ever since.
“It wasn’t fun. That hurt,” Heiskanen said of the play. “But it’s something that happens in this sport. It’s just an unfortunate thing, and you just have to go through it and try to be positive and work hard and get back. Things like that happen, and I’m glad I’m back now and I’m back playing.”
He and Tyler Seguin were both out and rehabbing for most of the second half of the season, and that helped in their recoveries. More recently, Jason Robertson was in the gym and on the practice ice with him. It took a village to bring them all back into the lineup.
“Let's start with his team of trainers that we have here, and doctors, people that worked with him,” DeBoer said when asked about what the team had to do to get Heiskanen back. “Huge effort by that group every day, pushing him to get back. We come in early as coaches, and he was the first guy there all the time getting his work done before everyone else showed up. He gets a lot of credit for that, too, because he pushed himself. But he had a lot of people in his corner pushing him.
“I think everyone knows how important he is to our group. I think we kind of took the approach that we can't be concerned about that until he's back in the lineup. We've gotta find a way. You know, we stumbled around a little bit, it wasn't pretty for portions of the 42 games he was out. But the group found a way. You have to give them credit.”
Heiskanen added, “I just tried to stay positive and work hard, and guys did a great job to beat Colorado so I have a chance to come back and be playing again. It’s frustrating to watch the games and be out, but it’s great to be back now.”
And now is the time for a potential reward. DeBoer said Wednesday the team would likely stick with the alignment of seven defensemen and 11 forwards to help offer Heiskanen additional support.
“We’ll see,” DeBoer said. “Miro has been back for one night. I don’t think he’s ready to go from 14 or 15 minutes to 25. We’ll just play that game to game. I think having that first game and him getting it under his belt is a great thing.”
For the entire team.
"He's worked his butt off,” Oettinger said. “Just such a big part of this team. The fact that we get to add a guy like that halfway through the postseason run is incredible."
