WINNIPEG -- Having Tyler Seguin and Jason Spezza as your top two centers would be seen as a positive for most teams, but that hasn't been the case for the Stars this season.

Spezza will return from a five-game absence with an upper body injury Tuesday, and coach Lindy Ruff will put him and Seguin on the same line. Seguin is expected to play the right wing, as he has done for much of the season, and Spezza will center. There have been times both have played right wing, but it's been rare that both have played center.

Ruff said there's a reason for that.

"The issue with having both of them (at center) is we spend too much time in our own end," Ruff said. "You need better, harder defenders, more physical guys to get the puck back. The numbers that support not having them down low are pretty good."

Ruff last season moved Cody Eakin to the top line when Seguin went out with an Achilles injury, and the coach liked the result. He said having a defensive centerman with Jamie Benn helps the Stars stay out of the defensive zone and get on the attack more. When Spezza has battled injuries this season, Radek Faksa has been moved up the lineup into the second line center spot, and Ruff said he also likes what Faksa adds.

"I just think a Faksa or an Eakin, that was the recipe that pushed us over the edge last year," Ruff said. "I tried early in the year to (go to Seguin and Spezza centering the top two line) and we couldn't kill enough plays. So as a coach you ask, `Why aren't we getting it done?'"

Seguin is worst on the team this year in plus-minus at minus-18. Spezza is minus-12 in 45 games. Eakin is minus-7 in 35 games and Faksa is plus-3. Eakin has centered Jamie Benn for the past month and Benn has 16 points (eight goals, eight assists) in the past 11 games. Eakin has one goal and four assists in that span and is plus-2.

"With the speed in today's game, if you can't get to a certain play soon enough in your own end, then you can spend your 15 seconds there, and by the time you get it out you're changing," Ruff said. "I think that was a big problem where Benn and Seguin weren't getting much done early in the year."

Seguin said he and Spezza are simply trying to adjust to what the coaches want.

"We're just trying to make it work," Seguin said. "We both can play center, we both can play wing."

One negative side effect is that both players have seen their faceoff winning percentage drop as they make fewer visits to the dot. Spezza has fallen from 54.8 percent last season to 51.7 percent, while Seguin has dropped from 55.6 percent last season to 49.3 percent.

"You don't get the rhythm you're used to if you're only taking five or six a game, but you have to make it work," Spezza said.

Because it seems for the foreseeable future you won't be seeing both play center in the same game.

"At the end, they're both valuable players for us," Ruff said. "Sometimes you can support one, but it's hard when you end up with two guys (at center) and you spend too much time in your own end."

Twitter: @MikeHeika