The Dallas Stars are back in full swing after a lengthy Olympic break and got off to a good start with a dominant win over the Seattle Kraken on Wednesday night. Up next is a home matchup with the Nashville Predators on Saturday night.
However, despite the break in the schedule, several players competed at the Olympics in Milan. Dallas’ players didn’t return unscathed, as Mikko Rantanen will miss some time with a lower-body injury.
Stars coach Glen Gulutzan joined “The Hardline” on Sportsradio 96.7 FM/1310 The Ticket (KTCK-AM) on Friday afternoon and provided an update on Rantanen’s injury, had some praise for Wyatt Johnston and offered some insight into the team’s mentality during the upcoming stretch run before the playoffs.
Below are highlights of the conversation, edited lightly for clarity.
Sports Roundup
What can you say about Mikko Rantanen’s injury, what’s the situation there?
Glen Gulutzan: Finland was short the [Sasha] Barkovs of the world and guys like that. So Mikko sticks out for them too, as one of their top guys. And I’m sure when those other teams are playing, they’re going after the top guys. But I’m optimistic that he’s going to be back in a couple weeks here. It was a little bit of a freak injury. It wasn’t anything dirty. I believe it happened when somebody fell on him there from Hockey Canada, about three or four shifts left, and I’m just hoping that he responds really quickly. Mikko is a guy that he just does everything possible to get himself prepared. He’s always thinking 24/7 about what he’s going to do next to get himself prepared to play a game. So I know he’s going to be doing everything he can to get this injury healed up as quick as possible, but hopefully we have him back here sooner or later. Because he’s a big miss for us.
Wyatt Johnston jumped right out of the Olympic break and scored two, one on the power play, to overtake Mike Modano for the franchise’s all-time single-season lead. He’s still so young but already so good, it seems like we take him for granted.
Gulutzan: You forget how young he is. But I will give you a little inside tip here. I’m not sure if there’s any correlation, but Joe Pavelski was here a little bit over the break with his son and they were playing some hockey in Dallas, and I know Wyatt stayed there early. Joe’s obviously one of the best. And it’s funny, the first two goals that Wyatt got here to come back, a couple of them, they were tip-in goals. And I wonder how much Joe had to do with that. I wasn’t here the whole time [that Johnston lived with Pavelski’s family], but I know it was a full season and I know, just hearing around the rink here, I haven’t heard from Joe himself, but just almost like he was their adopted child.
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You guys have a good stretch of home games and want to make the most of these opportunities. But at the same time, it certainly beats long, extended road trips down the stretch.
Gulutzan: Oh yeah. We could see it even today. We had a great practice. We had great energy. We’ve got a lot of Canadian guys and Finnish, Europeans and then a lot of Northern Americans. So when they were all walking out of the back of the rink, and it was 80 degrees here, I could hear about three or four like: “Oh my god, it’s so nice out.” So it is nice to be home for a little bit with this weather. And if we can get some home cooking and get this home record a little bit better, I think, after the Olympics and everybody having their breaks, everybody’s glad to be here right now.
With the Central Division being so tight, do you start scoreboard-watching yet? Or are you just focusing on yourself and it’ll end up how it ends up?
Gulutzan: I’ve always answered this question this whole year that I’m not scoreboard-watching, but I am scoreboard-watching now. I am watching a little bit. I mean, things got tight. We kind of got ourselves back into it, but we are heavily slanted towards ourselves. Never in any our meetings do we talk about it, but it’s nice when it sits there in the back of our minds, because you know it’s sitting in the back of the players’ minds, and sometimes that little competition allows you to idle at a higher level here for a while, and that just helps your game.
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