Anton Khudobin made a healthy scratch for disciplinary reasons.

The Dallas Stars will be without their top goaltender, but it won't be injury or covid that keeps him out of the lineup this time around.

On Saturday Dallas Stars head coach Rick Bowness confirmed that Anton Khudobin will be sidelined for disciplinary reasons, although at the time of this writing the reasons for that discipline remain a mystery. Bowness was straight forward during his media availability on Saturday making it clear that, although he considers himself a coach with relatively few rules, he expects the rules he puts in place to be followed.

"We're a family and we'll deal with things internally," Bowness said as per NHL.com. "But you deal with things by communicating and making your feelings known on what is and what isn't acceptable. I have very few rules, but you [darn] well better follow them."

Not only will this personally impact Khudobin but it's hard to argue that this will not hurt the Stars who have been leaning heavily on Khudobin early in this National Hockey League season. That being said Bowness is sending a message here, that much is obvious, and if Khudobin ends up costing his teammates as a result of his behavior he will have that additional pressure to deal with as well.

Some have been quick to point to Khudobin's last two starts, both of which have been underwhelming, as a potential reason for this discipline but I highly doubt that is the case. For one it would be unusual for a coach to so publicly call out his goaltender, and bench him in so public a fashion, if he was trying to help that player find his game and his confidence. 

There's also a report from Stars insider Mike Heika that may provide a hint as to what may have happened to result in Khudobin being put in the press box by Bowness. According to Heika, Khudobin only showed up towards the end of Stars practice on Saturday morning. Although this is only speculation, Heika has deduced that this likely meant Khudobin was late for practice this morning, potentially resulting in the extra discipline from Bowness.

I will say again that this is only speculation, but it certainly fits the timeline.