FRISCO -- Players have lauded first-year Stars coach Jim Montgomery for his modern approach to hockey during their first 10 days of preseason practice, a style based on pressure and possession. It's partly traditional and partly forward-thinking.

How about his philosophy on when to pull the goalie? That's a little traditional and a little progressive, as well.

"If you're behind and you're gaining scoring chances and puck possession, I think you wait until the appropriate time in the last two minutes," Montgomery said. "But if your team's flat and you're losing by three in the second period, I'm not against pulling the goalie then.

"Because you need to change momentum of the game. If your team's not doing anything and you're flat, you need to put urgency in their game, and that's the best way to do it is by pulling the goaltender."

Wait, so Montgomery is open to pulling the goalie in the second period?

"I have before," he replied.

The conversation Sunday afternoon was opened because a study from earlier this year determined the optimal times to pull the goalie when trailing -- and they strayed far from the traditional last two minutes approach. The study (which can be read here) recommended the following:

-- If a team trails by one goal, pull the goalie with 5:40 remaining.

-- Two goals, 11:40.

-- Three goals, 17:50.

-- Four goals, 35:50.

-- Five or more goals, any time.

Montgomery expanded on his philosophy with unusual goalie-pulling.

"A

good way to do it is 4-on-4 and the other team maybe has their third setting out there, and you get a 5-on-4 and there are people out there that are not used to penalty killing," Montgomery said. "That's one situation. You usually want to do it against the third or fourth line because top lines can end a game pretty quick with open netters."

-- Defenseman Stephen Johns missed practice again Sunday afternoon, and Montgomery said it was a maintenance day for the 26-year-old. Johns has missed five of the last six days of practice.

Montgomery expected him to be ready for the season opener against Arizona on Oct. 4.

"He's a little banged up, and we just want to be sure that he's ready for Oct. 4," Montgomery said. "So we're just being precautionary, probably over precautionary."

-- Goalies Anton Khudobin and Ben Bishop will split the final four preseason games, and play the entire games instead of half like they have in the past week. Khudobin gets his first full game of the preseason Monday against Minnesota.

"It's more mental than physical, but they got to stay engaged mentally, play a whole game," Montgomery said.

-- The Stars will let Roope Hintz center the top line between Jamie Benn and Alexander Radulov on Monday night, to "see what he can do in an offensive situation," Montgomery said. Hintz is fighting for a spot on both the NHL roster and the fourth line.

Projected Stars lineup against Minnesota, Monday at 7:30 p.m., American Airlines Center

Jamie Benn - Roope Hintz - Alexander Radulov

Mattias Janmark - Jason Spezza - Valeri Nichushkin

Blake Comeau - Radek Faksa - Tyler Pitlick

TBA - Jason Dickinson - Michael Mersch

Esa Lindell - John Klingberg

Marc Methot - Miro Heiskanen

Dillon Heatherington - Joel Hanley

Anton Khudobin