Anton Khudobin to be absent from game vs. Chicago as Stars handle ‘internal issue’

Anton Khudobin won’t be in goal for the Stars on Sunday afternoon against Chicago. He won’t be on the bench either.

Instead, Khudobin will be scratched as the team handles “an internal issue that we’ll deal with internally,” coach Rick Bowness said Saturday afternoon.

Khudobin was not on the ice during the main portion of practice that began at 11 a.m. Saturday but was on the ice as players began to depart at noon, when he took shots from players on the taxi squad.

Bowness said Jake Oettinger will start against the Blackhawks, and Landon Bow will serve as the backup. It will be Oettinger’s third start of the season (2-0, .898 save percentage, 2.42 goals against average), and Bow’s first game on the active roster. Bow has spent the first eight games of the season on the taxi squad.

When asked whether the issue with Khudobin would impact games beyond Sunday’s against Chicago, Bowness said “We’ll deal with one day at a time.” The Stars and Blackhawks meet again at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Khudobin last started Thursday night against the Blue Jackets during a 4-3 loss when he was uncharacteristically porous, making 18 saves in Columbus. After the game, Khudobin said “I don’t know what happened, but it wasn’t my night.”

The game capped a road trip in which Khudobin started three of four games, going 0-2-1 with a .857 save percentage and 4.31 GAA. Beginning with Sunday’s game against Chicago, the Stars’ next eight games are at American Airlines Center, and Dallas doesn’t play on the road again until Feb. 22 at Florida.

Bowness was asked Saturday broadly about how he handles player discipline and how he conveys his expectations to that player.

“Do it very openly,” Bowness said. “We communicate very openly here. We’re a family. We’ll deal with things internally. You deal with things by communicating and making your feelings known, what is and what isn’t acceptable.

“I have very few rules, but you damn well better follow them.”

Khudobin’s absence will be the first discipline-related scratch for the Stars since March 5, 2019, when Jim Montgomery scratched Alexander Radulov for being late to the morning skate. Radulov returned the next game with a hat trick against the Colorado Avalanche.

Khudobin entered this season as the undisputed No. 1 goaltender in Dallas, as Ben Bishop recovers from offseason knee surgery to repair a torn meniscus. It was the first time in Khudobin’s career that he was the opening night starter and came on the heels of a run to the Stanley Cup Final in the Edmonton bubble.

Khudobin, 34, allowed three total goals in his first three starts (all wins) and 11 combined goals in his most recent three starts (two regulation losses and one shootout loss).

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