Stars coach Marc Crawford said the two teams will bend the rules a little in Wednesday's Bud Light Battle of the Stars _ a match between the Dallas Stars and their new AHL affiliate, the Texas Stars.
NHL goalies Marty Turco (playing for Dallas) and Alex Auld (playing for Texas) will start and play half of the game.
AHL goalies Matt Climie and Brent Krahn (not sure on who will play for whom yet) will then finish up.
The Stars will play all of their players and will run seven defensemen and probably 13 forwards, so that all of the players can get a look see.
Here's Crawford on what he wants to get out of the game:
"It's another opportunity for the guys to play together, to feel comfortable with their lineups. It's another opportunity to get comfortable with the some of the areas we've been putting in some work - our penalty kill, our neutral zone play. Preparation is important, no matter what it is. We've kept our thumbs on the guys a little bit that we want them to be sharp in their preparation for the start of the game because how you start games is so important. That's another area of our focus."
When asked if he thought players might cruise through this game, Crawford said there's no way either side can do that.
"You have to play all out,'' Crawford said. ``They have to play the way they expect to play in a regular season game. It's our last chance to have a higher intensity scrimmage than you would get in a practice."
Texas is battling some injury problems with Warren Peters (face), Ray Sawada (thumb) and could also be missing a few other players. We'll have an update later.
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