There's fallout from Dmitry Kulikov's nasty hit on Tyler Seguin. While the NHL's lords of discipline weigh punishment, the Stars are feeling the pain.
Seguin will miss at least two weeks with a knee injury from what observers are calling a dirty play, Stars watcher Mike Heika reports. Stars GM Jim Nill later updated the recovery period to three weeks' minimum.
The Stars put Seguin in injured reserve. High estimates see Seguin out a month — if those indeed are the worst case — which means between six and 13 games. Which also is bad news for the Stars' playoff hopes.
That's the word from coach Lindy Ruff, who as usual was short on details of the injury, other than the perfunctory "lower body."
Meanwhile, NHL officials offered Kulikov an in-person hearing, meaning a lengthy banishment awaits. They also suspended him indefinitely, according to Canadian sports outlet TSN. There was no immediate word on when a hearing would be held.
Expect Kulikov's suspension to be at least six games. His first game will be Sunday against the St. Louis Blues. And by the way, Kulikov, 24, isn't on the NHL's repeat offender list.
That's not all the Stars' injury problems. Patrick Eaves was being watched for concussion symptoms after getting clocked in the head by teammate John Klingberg's shot, and Ales Hemsky was being treated for a lower-body injury from Friday's game against the Florida Panthers.
If there is any good news in the updates, it's that Eaves didn't have a skull fracture.
Ruff will have fill-ins available for the Stars' game in Denver, Brett Ritchie and Travis Morin from AHL Texas, but he won't be able to replace the scoring potential of Seguin and Hemsky.
Seguin, if you check the stats, is third in the NHL in scoring with 29 goals and 30 assists.
Looking at the hit, it's no wonder Ruff called the Kulikov low-bridge dirty. Maybe the kindest thing Ruff said was the defenseman's play was "a shot that didn't need to happen."
Kulikov received a five-minute major and a game misconduct on Friday. More will come.
"It's just something that you end up taking your best player out of the game," Ruff said. "Not only out of the game, but he's taken him out of the lineup for a little bit for us. We'll let the league deal with it. I used to yell and scream about it, but it doesn't do any good."