Dallas Stars head coach Marc Crawford says "all signs point" to Loui Eriksson's return tonight in the most important game of the season against the visiting Anaheim Ducks. Eriksson missed two games after running into a brick wall named Douglas Murray at the blue line last Tuesday night in a loss to the Sharks.

Prior to that game Eriksson had recorded a point in seven of his previous nine games and had been newly reunited with Brad Richards who, of course, had missed a lot of time before that.

Richards has been playing on a line with Jamie Langenbrunner and Steve Ott, and also on a trio including Brandon Segal and Tomas Vincour, so the return of Loui Eriksson is critical to stabilize his situation and facilitate the on-going process of getting him [Richards] back to his old self.

The night of the injury Eriksson started on a line with Brad Richards and Tomas Vincour, so we'll have to see if that continues tonight. Steve Ott and Richards have shown some good chemistry recently as well so they'll also have to consider than an option.

Loui scored a goal when last we saw Anaheim and has 19 points in his career against them, including a hat trick last season at American Airlines Center. (Could use one of those tonight...is that greedy?)

We'll update with other news as it becomes available but Karlis Skrastins, Nick Grossman, Brian Sutherby and Adam Burish are all still on the shelf for Dallas.