{"id":553776,"date":"2026-04-16T10:40:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T10:40:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/553776\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T10:40:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T10:40:12","slug":"wild-stars-game-1-start-time-might-have-accidentally-leaked","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/553776\/","title":{"rendered":"Wild-Stars Game 1 start time might have accidentally leaked"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5r\">Circle your calendars, the Minnesota Wild will embark on their journey to avoid another consecutive first-round playoff exit on Saturday in Dallas. Thanks to some over sharing from American Airlines Arena employees, it seems we have an idea of when in the afternoon the game might be played. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5u\">Playoff hockey is finally upon us, and for the 11th time since 2014 the Minnesota Wild are part of the fun. Unfortunately, that\u2019s how far back you need to go for the last time the Wild made it out of the first round as it\u2019s been a series a swift exits ever since. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5x\">That feels like it might change this year, but the hockey gods aren\u2019t making it easy. Minnesota will need to get past the Dallas Stars \u2014 a hated rival and the second-best team in the Western Conference \u2014 if it wants to end its miserable streak. The roster is loaded with talent, though, so this time around things don\u2019t feel as daunting as they have in recent years. Still, if last Thursday\u2019s preview of this upcoming series was any indication, it\u2019s going to be a bumpy ride no matter how things shake out in the end. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"60\">No matter the nerves, everyone is ready for playoff hockey but we\u2019re all still waiting for the official schedule to drop. Most of the field is set, but not all of it, which is delaying things getting locked into place until after the regular season wraps up on Thursday. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"63\">That hasn\u2019t stopped some folks from seemingly tipping the league\u2019s hand and showing its scheduling cards ahead of time. <\/p>\n<p>Wild vs. Stars Game 1 start time might have leaked early <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"69\">Take it for what it\u2019s worth \u2014 this is one of those my brother\u2019s girlfriend\u2019s cousin\u2019s best friend\u2019s next door neighbor said situations \u2014 but employees at American Airlines Arena in Dallas have said that they\u2019re going to need to <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/goalieguy1978\/status\/2044068536994206181?s=61&amp;t=jeSNuNvHTNpc5pZ7Dz4c0Q\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">report to work on Saturday afternoon around 12pm CT<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6c\">Is this totally reliable information? No. Will we take any kernel we can get to try and figure out when we need to block tie off on Saturday to watch the Wild? Youbetcha.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6f\">What this indicates is that Game 1 of the Wild-Stars series is slated to be the middle game of that Saturday slate, something that checks out when cross-referenced against the advanced schedule times that have been floating around. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6i\">For what it\u2019s worth, it\u2019s more than just social media heresay that has everyone thinking the Wild will drop the puck on Saturday afternoon. Stars head coach Glen Gulutzan hinted at as much when speaking to the media this week. <\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">As Glen Gulutzan noted a few times today to Stars media, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/mnwild?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">#mnwild<\/a>, too, are expecting Game 1 to be in one of the two Saturday afternoon windows<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RussoHockey\/status\/2043778521437180004?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">April 13, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-11\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6o\">There are three time slots on Saturday and the Wild drawing the first and earliest slot would be a bit of a headscatcher. This is, after all, the marquee matchup of the opening round with two top teams going at it. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-12\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6r\">However, the flip side of that coin is the Wild aren\u2019t forced into the latest possible time slot \u2014 something we\u2019ve had to live with for far too long during the playoffs. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-13\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6u\">Either way, playoff hockey is finally here and for the first time in a while it feels like the Wild have a legit shot at making a run. Quinn Hughes excelerated the team\u2019s timeline and the way guys like Matt Boldy, Brock Faber, and Vladimir Tarasenko have been clicking as of late is just the tip of the iceberg of reasons fans should be excited. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-14\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6x\">Hopefully it\u2019s not an iceberg that eventually sees the season sink. <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.minutemediacdn.com\/platform\/google_discover_icon.svg\" class=\"shrink-0\"\/>Add us as a preferred source on Google<a aria-label=\"Follow gonepuckwild.com on Google News\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=gonepuckwild.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"flex h-[30px] w-[30px] shrink-0 items-center justify-center rounded-full bg-primary font-group-large text-sm font-medium text-white transition-colors hover:bg-secondary focus:bg-secondary md:w-auto md:gap-2.5 md:px-4 md:py-[5px]\">Follow<\/a><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Circle your calendars, the Minnesota Wild will embark on their journey to avoid another consecutive first-round playoff exit&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":553777,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5118],"tags":[5,161,38,5280,4,162],"class_list":{"0":"post-553776","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-wild","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-minnesota","10":"tag-minnesota-wild","11":"tag-minnesotawild","12":"tag-nhl","13":"tag-wild"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116413965532175091","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=553776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553776\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/553777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=553776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=553776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=553776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}