Solving the puzzle of consistency has been confounding for the Stars this season, in large part because there always seems to be a piece missing.
So it seems painfully appropriate that as soon as coach Lindy Ruff was starting to see a picture of regular lines forming, Jason Spezza will be out for the next week or two with an upper body injury. Spezza suffered the injury on a hard hit by Winnipeg's Adam Lowry on Thursday, and that will force Ruff to shuffle his lines once again.
The guess is the veteran bench boss simply slides Brett Ritchie up to the right wing in Spezza's spot with Antoine Roussel and Tyler Seguin so as to protect the consistency that has been bubbling over the past five games.