Dallas Stars head coach Rick Bowness, left, talks as Jamie Benn, right, and other Stars players listen during a team practice session in Dallas on Thursday. (AP photo)

DALLAS — The Dallas Stars are finally set to open their season, more than 10 months after playing their last home game, nearly four months after losing the deciding Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final and a week after every other NHL team got back on the ice.

The Stars’ return comes after 17 players tested positive for COVID-19, even though most were asymptomatic.

Their first four scheduled games, all on the road and including an early Stanley Cup Final rematch with Tampa Bay, were postponed. That came after the NHL revealed Jan. 12, two days before their anticipated opener, that the Stars accounted for well more than half of the 27 players among nine teams that tested positive during the abbreviated two weeks of training camps. The defending Western Conference champions open tonight

“Right now, listen, we’re all ready for a game,” Stars coach Rick Bowness said after practice Thursday at their home arena. “We’re ready to play an opponent, play against somebody other than our own teammates. We want that excitement, we want that adrenaline going … then we’ll manage it from there.”

Dallas returns most of the core group from its first trip to the Stanley Cup Final since 2000, and already knew it was going to be without All-Star center Tyler Seguin (hip) and goaltender Ben Bishop (knee) until at least last March while they rehab from offseason surgery.

Dallas Stars head coach Rick Bowness picks up pucks between drills during training camp practice on Jan. 6 in Frisco, Texas. (AP file photo)

The opener is against Nashville (2-1), which had its scheduled game Tuesday postponed because of Carolina’s virus issues.