Tyler Seguin's first regular-season shift in 10 months landed on a night the Dallas Stars could not put a puck past Joel Hofer. Seguin returned from a torn ACL in his right knee and played 14:55 in Friday's 4-0 loss to the St. Louis Blues at American Airlines Center, NHL.com reported. He finished minus-2 with four shots and six penalty minutes.
The personal milestone and the team result pulled in opposite directions.
Seguin had not played since Dec. 2, 2025. Afterward he told NHL.com the first half of the game felt fast, then slowed, and that he expected to improve. "Not very happy with tonight, but tomorrow's a new day," he said. DallasStars.com's Mike Heika quoted Seguin describing a preseason feel, with penalties and miscues chopping up the flow.
A return that still had to skate through chaos
Opening night already carried roster tension after Matt Duchene's long-term injured reserve placement earlier in the week, a separate story the club managed before puck drop. Seguin's availability was the brighter half of that forward picture.
Friday asked him to find timing against a Blues group that scored 94 seconds in, when Mason McTavish finished a rebound in his St. Louis debut, per the Associated Press and NHL.com.
Seguin's penalty sheet told part of the adjustment story. He took a hooking minor in the second period and a four-minute high-sticking penalty in the third, according to the CBS Sports play-by-play. Those minutes sat next to four shots on goal - evidence he was finding the offensive zone even as Dallas finished with zero goals as a team.
Hofer stopped 25 shots for his ninth career shutout.
The game around him
Jake Oettinger made 20 saves. Dalibor Dvorsky's second-period goal came after Oettinger collided with Roope Hintz while trying to recover a puck behind the net, NHL.com reported. Hintz, in his first game since March 6, later absorbed a knee-to-knee hit from Brandon Carlo that drew a five-minute major and a game misconduct; Hintz left briefly and returned, Heika wrote.
Jimmy Snuggerud and Pius Suter sealed the win with empty-net goals late in the third.
