The Dallas Stars shouldn’t play Tyler Seguin on Wednesday

The Dallas Stars will play a game Wednesday night in Nashville.

It won’t matter. The Stars will win or lose, they’ll either be impressive or they won’t, and in the end, it’ll still be all about Game 1 against the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday, which is now one of the worst-kept secrets in hockey.

The Stars didn’t care about winning against the Utah Hockey Club, they didn’t care about winning against the Detroit Red Wings, so why should they care about the result against Nashville?

And with this being an organizational decision, both Stars head coach Pete DeBoer and Jim Nill were honest about it. The Stars have prioritized long-term health and avoiding risk this week rather than taking the final regular season games seriously.

It’s why Thomas Harley and Esa Lindell have been healthy scratches the past two games, and it’s an attitude that permeated through the rest of the group. You may be playing, but your job is to be ready for Saturday.

It’s frustrating for fans, I get that, but it’s a decision the Stars have made and are willing to live with.

Which is why the Stars shouldn’t play Tyler Seguin on Wednesday, even after DeBoer said on Monday that he’d try to play more of a full lineup against the Predators.

To play Seguin, the Stars would have to send Alexander Petrovic and Lian Bichsel to the AHL. It’s the only way Dallas can open up the cap space at this time, and if Petrovic and Bichsel are unavailable, Harley and Lindell would have to play.

So, I’ll pose this question: is it worth risking injury to Lindell and Harley for 15 shifts of Seguin?

Sure, in a perfect world, you’d love to have Seguin test out the injured hip against Nashville and find out if he is really ready. But Seguin is also a forward, you dress 12 in a game, and while it wouldn’t be easy for him to get up to game speed in Game 1 of the playoffs, it’s not a major detriment to the team if you have to go to 11 forwards for one game.

Harley or Lindell getting injured against Nashville, especially with Miro Heiskanen’s status up in the air, would likely be a death knell to the Stars playoff hopes.

I get that I’m talking about minuscule chances, but why take any chance of Lindell taking a slap shot from Steven Stamkos off the glove or Harley going awkwardly into a corner in a meaningless game?

There’s also a positive side effect of keeping Bichsel in the lineup for Wednesday.

Bichsel was distraught on Monday after the Stars lost to the Red Wings. He took it rather hard that he’d stolen Stars captain Jamie Benn’s 400th goal, on a play that you can’t fault the rookie defender for making — he went hard to the net and made sure the puck crossed the line.

As noted before, Bichsel would have to sit for Seguin to play. If anyone needs a shot of confidence right now, a game to clean things up and get out some potential frustrations, it’s Bichsel.

These are the things that Stars have to weigh before Wednesday. Is it really worth taking additional risk to end a six-game losing streak before the playoffs? Is winning one game in Nashville on Wednesday really that much of a potential momentum builder into a playoff series?

I don’t think it would change things either way. The Stars will either have one win in their last seven games or zero in their last seven going into Saturday, the “playoff switch” they have to flip is the same either way on Thursday morning.

So why it might not be what’s best for Seguin and his comfort level in Game 1, the Stars owe it to themselves to think about what’s really best for the entire team in Game 1 against Colorado. Is any level of risk to the foundation of your defense, which has already been shaken by the Heiskanen injury, worth it so one injured player can get 15 shifts in Nashville?