Tyler Seguin could miss month with sliced Achilles

It was Tyler Seguin’s last shift of the game, and potentially in the regular season.

The Dallas Stars forward skated over to the blue line, where he became tangled up with Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Anton Stralman, whose skate appeared to make contact with Seguin’s leg.

The Stars hung on for the win. Seguin limped back to the dressing room. All that Dallas coach Lindy Ruff would say after the game was, "He got cut, so we'll know more tomorrow."

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On Friday, Stars GM Jim Nill knew more: Seguin had a cut on his Achilles tendon and required surgery to have it “stitched up,” according to Mike Heika. The prognosis: Seguin, the third-leading scorer in the NHL with 73 points, will miss 3-4 weeks of action.

The Stars’ final game of the regular season is April 9.

Seguin has 33 goals and 40 assists on the season. He’s second to Jamie Benn in both categories, and obviously this greatly affects Benn. He’s averaged 3.06 goals-for per 60 minutes of ice time with Seguin through close to 880 minutes of even strength time together. Away from Seguin? Benn averages 1.98 goals-for per 60. (Kiss any chance of Benn rallying for the Art Ross vs. Patrick Kane goodbye.)

This throws the Western Conference playoff seeding into a bit more uncertainty. The Stars’ win last night put them two points up on the St. Louis Blues for first in the Central Division and two points up on both the Blues and the Los Angeles Kings for top of the conference.

And it’s the top of the conference that’s the prize: Avoiding either the Chicago Blackhawks (88 points) or the Nashville Predators (85 points) in the opening round would be preferable. (No disrespect to the Minnesota Wild or Colorado Avalanche, but they’re a more desirable alternative.)

Seguin has 57 points in the Stars’ 42 wins, including 26 goals. In their 30 regulation and/or overtime losses, the Seguin had 16 points. As he went, so did the Stars. And now he’s gone for the last 10 games of the season, provided his prognosis doesn’t improve.

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Greg Wyshynski is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter. His book, TAKE YOUR EYE OFF THE PUCK, is available on Amazon and wherever books are sold.

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