Crystal ball needed for fans this weekend

Marc Crawford has been surprisingly revealing for most of his time in Dallas, but he chose to be a little coy on Friday.

Dallas plays at Columbus Saturday and at Detroit Sunday, and Crawford said that obviously he will play both his goalies this weekend, but..."You'll have to see which one plays first.''

In addition, he said both Krys Barch (foot) and Matt Niskanen will return to the lineup, but he wasn't tipping his hand on either move. Barch has been out seven games, but has been practicing and is ready to get back in. You would think he would replace Brian Sutherby if he's in, but who knows right now. Niskanen has been a healthy scratch for two games, but Crawford said he wants to get him back into the lineup. You would think Mark Fistric or Jeff Woywitka would come out to make room for Niskanen.

"We're going to try to get Krys Barch in. He's ready to go and went to get him back into the group," Crawford said. "Matt Niskanen will probably re-enter our lineup for the next game. As I said before, I wasn't disappointed in his play, but I thought Fistric came in and gave us some physicality in the two-game series with San Jose. San Jose is a big, big team and he is one of the guys that threw his weight around quite nicely last night.''

So we'll see what happens. By the way, the Stars had a third goalie at practice and will probably start giving Kari Lehtonen more time off from practice. Then again, Lehtonen practiced 45 minutes today, so it's not like he seemed to be sore after his first game in returning from back soreness.