DALLAS \u2013 Like all divisional rivals, the Wild and Stars saw each other four times in the regular season \u2013 twice in Minnesota and twice in Texas \u2013 but the meetings were spread out over the course of seven months. They played in October, December, March and April on their way to a playoff collision that seemed preordained since before the holidays.<\/p>\n
One of the things that makes the postseason different is seeing the same team, night after night, for between four and seven games, and the kind of \u201cchess match on ice\u201d that develops as one team makes moves and the other tries to counter those moves.<\/p>\n
In the Wild\u2019s lopsided Game 1 win, Dallas struggled to get its offense and its forecheck going, due in large part to scouting work done by the Minnesota coaches and their preparation for what the Stars like to do. As Game 2 loomed on Monday, Stars coach Glen Gulutzan promised there would be moves made to counter the things Minnesota had done so well and \u201ctidy up\u201d their game.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe did make an adjustment today,\u201d Gulutzan said following the team\u2019s Monday morning skate at American Airlines Center. \u201cI\u2019m not gonna tell you what it is, but certainly we looked at that exact same thing. We just didn\u2019t have enough forecheck time. And when you have defensemen like they do, who can control play with their legs, if you\u2019re not hemming them in their zone or creating a forecheck and getting pucks stopped, you\u2019re going to be on the other side, taking on water.\u201d<\/p>\n
Saturday\u2019s opening game was the first road win by either team this season, but for Dallas it was not new territory. The Stars have now lost the opener in nine of their past 11 playoff series, including three years ago when they hosted Minnesota in the first round. Conversely, the Wild have now held a series lead in six straight playoff series, and have lost all of them. Wild coach John Hynes, who is looking for the first playoff series win of his NHL career, said the forced familiarity with a foe is a hallmark of late April hockey.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s I think the fun part of a series and it\u2019s a little bit different than the regular season, because you\u2019re not playing a team and then moving on to a different team or a different system,\u201d Hynes said. \u201cYou play the game and then you gather the information you need and then you prepare your own team for what you think is gonna be best for the next game.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Wild winger Nick Foligno, Game 1 was his first playoff game since 2023, having been a spectator the past three seasons with the Chicago Blackhawks. Acquired at the trade deadline and reunited with his younger brother Marcus on a physical fourth line featuring big man Michael McCarron at center, the return to the postseason, and getting to know one opponent in depth, has been a delight so far.<\/p>\n
He headed into Game 2 expecting a strong counter from Dallas, while heeding Hynes call that the Wild need to be better every game if they are to make a deep run.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the beauty of the playoffs, right? It is a chess match and I think you enjoy the challenge of what can you do better,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat can you improve on? Whether you win or lose, it\u2019s always trying to get better as the series goes on.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the home locker room, Stars forward Matt Duchene knows Hynes well, having played for him for four years in Nashville. He said the Stars saw plenty of what they expected from the Minnesota coach and his players in Game 1, and expected to push back hard if this series was going to be a lengthy one.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s up to us to make it a long series,\u201d Duchene said.<\/p>\n
Briefly<\/p>\n
Wild defenseman Zach Bogosian did not skate with the team on Monday in Dallas, but Hynes said the absence was for maintenance reasons and the veteran blueliner was expected in the Game 2 lineup. Bogosian, 35, missed exactly half of the regular season while dealing with various injuries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DALLAS \u2013 Like all divisional rivals, the Wild and Stars saw each other four times in the regular…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":556889,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5118],"tags":[5,161,38,5280,4,43,162],"class_list":{"0":"post-556888","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-sports","14":"tag-wild"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116438937345356220","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556888","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=556888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/556889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}