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Monday Dallas Stars Update

FRISCO – Mike Modano was back skating with the team on Monday morning. Matt Niskanen is working toward returning for Wednesday’s next game. Nicklas Grossman’s face is healing nicely, thank you.

Modano was encouraged that he participated in most of Monday’s practice but still cautious regarding his return with no timetable: “Seems like it gets to two or three days [feeling good], and then I feel something,” he said. Coach Marc Crawford anticipates both Modano and Jere Lehtinen (out again Monday) practicing Tuesday in advance of Wednesday night’s home game against Toronto.

• Matt Niskanen went through the full Monday session. He missed Thursday’s game at L.A. and Saturday’s win at St. Louis after being submarined by Anaheim’s Evgeny Artyukhin in Wedneday night’s win (which earned Artyukhin a three-game suspension).

“I feel a lot better than better than I did about 20 minutes after,” he said. “Made me see some stars.”

Niskanen, from small-town Minnesota, isn’t the type to get in an opponent’s face. But he admitted getting worked up over Artyukhin’s hit: “I think if I had been able to stand up, I would have had some nice words for that guy.”

Niskanen in a scrap? The last one took place just before the All-Star break, at Florida. “Didn’t go so well,” he admitted.

Growing up in the same hometown as the Hanson brothers of Slap Shot fame (Virginia, Minn.), Niskanen said he and his high school teammates took note of the Hansons’ tactics on the ice.

“Their first shift is probably the best shift in the history of hockey,” Niskanen said. “The way they’re flyin’ around, cheap-shottin’ guys. We used to make fun of that. We never really two-handed anyone across the head in a game.”

• Nicklas Grossman has junked the visor that he was wearing after taking a puck below the left eye early last week. Recalling the play itself: “I saw him get the puck on his stick. Then bodies came in front. Suddenly, I had a puck in the face. You can see it coming, but you don’t have time to react. You feel a little sting.”

Grossman has a plus-minus of +12 through only 11 games, leading the NHL. In case you’ve forgotten the Dallas club record, it’s +43 by Modano. The record for a defenseman is +37 shared by Derian Hatcher and Darryl Sydor.

Crawford said Grossman’s plus-minus is a valid barometer of his play: “Oftentimes in plus-minus, you can protect maybe one set of defensemen. Nicklas is not a guy we protect. He has played really well with Stephane Robidas. They seem to really enjoy playing together. He does a good job of supplementing the attack, making good first passes out of the zone, allowing the puck to get in to our talented forwards’ hands. Those are things that sometimes go unnoticed when you don’t get points.”

• Some follow-up notes on Mike Heika’s piece in Monday morning’s DMN on Marty Turco playing less and enjoying it more. When Turco sat out last Thursday at Los Angeles, that marked the third game that he hasn’t started this season. The date of the third game that Turco didn’t start last season with young Tobias Stephan playing behind him? Try Dec. 13. Then Turco started the next 32 consecutive until sitting out Pittsburgh’s visit on March 1.

Last Saturday night, Turco came within minutes of recording his second shutout of the season. His second shutout last season came on Jan. 27.