Julius Honka scored the Dallas Stars’ first goal against the New York Rangers last night, and it was good – really, really good. And it wasn’t even his first notable play; with less than 13 minutes of ice time, Honka stood out in plenty of good ways.
So it may sound odd that head coach Ken Hitchcock is already describing conditions under which he will send the 2014 first-rounder back to the press box. Mike Heika of The Dallas Morning News reports that Honka will “definitely” be in on Wednesday against the New York Islanders, but that Hitch will be watching for mistakes – including that of keeping the puck for longer than three seconds:
Hitchcock said that Honka needs to show what he has learned on a consistent basis to stay in the lineup.