The Dallas Stars may have escaped Tuesday with a 6-5 win over the Washington Capitals, but the real damage could show up on Thursday. Miro Heiskanen left after his first shift of the second period and, on Wednesday, Glen Gulutzan confirmed the defenseman is day to day. That is not the kind of update any team wants when it is already heading into a quick turnaround against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
And make no mistake: this matters. Heiskanen leads the Stars in minutes played at 24:53 and has 11 points in 15 games. When your most trusted defenseman is suddenly a question mark, the entire back end feels a little less stable, a little less certain and a lot more exposed than it did 24 hours earlier.
A defensive absence Dallas cannot casually wave away
Gulutzan did offer one crumb of encouragement, saying Heiskanen will be day to day for a bit and that it will not be long. That is better than the alternative, obviously, but “not long” is not the same thing as “available on Thursday.” Dallas held an optional practice in Columbus on Wednesday, which tells you the Stars are at least leaving room for a late call. Right now, though, there is no clean answer and no reason to pretend there is.
The Stars have already had to manage one injury in the same area of the team this season. Esa Lindell missed five games earlier in the year, and Lian Bichsel was blunt about what that meant inside the group. He said the Stars had been through it when Esa went out, that those two are a huge part of the defensive core, and that it is never easy when they go out during a game. He also added the obvious but important point: the group stepped up and won anyway.
That is the standard Dallas will need again if Heiskanen is unavailable. This is not merely about one player missing a shift or two. It is about workload, structure and the difference between surviving a game and controlling it. Heiskanen is the sort of defenseman who quietly makes everyone else’s life simpler. Remove that, and the margins get thinner in a hurry.
Robertson is carrying the attack, but the Blue Jackets are not coming in empty-handed
There is at least one reason Dallas can still feel confident about its scoring punch. Jason Robertson enters Thursday tied with Mikko Rantanen for the team lead in goals, assists and points this season, which is exactly the kind of production a contender wants when the defense starts to wobble. If the Stars are going to absorb a possible Heiskanen absence, they may need that offensive edge to show up early and often.
Columbus, though, will not treat this like a free pass. Charlie Coyle and Kent Johnson are tied for the Blue Jackets' team lead in points, which gives the home side enough threat to make Dallas work for every inch. The Stars already survived a seven-goal shootout style game against Washington. Doing it again without their most heavily used defenseman would be a much less comfortable exercise.
So the headline is simple enough: the Stars beat the Capitals, but the bigger question is whether they can bring the same control to Stars vs Blue Jackets without Heiskanen. For now, Dallas has a win and a waiting game. The second part is the one that will shape Thursday.
