It will be the fourth straight postseason appearance for the Wild, who have the eight seed in the conference. Of course, this is the beauty of the playoffs, no? It’s also managed to play like the worst team in the league many nights. They dominated the Chicago Blackhawks 6-1 in the Stadium Series, then only managed to score one goal against the Edmonton Oilers a week later. The Wild will go from having 3 scoring lines to being a two-line team paired with a duo of lines that are markedly worse than what Minnesota used as a fourth-line the year prior. GameDay Tickets subscribers will immediately receive a SMS text message on Wild home playoff game days when pairs of tickets (or more), or single seats become available.
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Haula (lower body injury) is out for the first game and is still considered day-to-day.
The Stars won four of five meetings this season against Minnesota, three in overtime along with a 6-3 win that included two empty-net goals – among the Stars’ NHL-record 24 empty-netters and NHL-best 265 goals overall this season. It is a playoff matchup 16 years in the making; the old North Stars will take to the ice against Minnesota’s new team in what’s likely to be an emotional hard fought battle, for the fans, at least. And for a team that had so little going for it down the stretch, Dubnyk has been pretty solid, going 14-11-1 since the All-Star break with a.912 save percentage. Kane, who finished the regular season with a scorching seven goals in five games, and Jonathan Toews bring a championship pedigree to a Blackhawks team that looks to embark on yet another deep run this postseason. Yes, Minnesota has Ryan Suter, who may be one of the best defensemen in the National Hockey League, but some of the young players on their blue line are inexperienced and it has shown in games they have lost this year.
December saw Minnesota bounce back before the team’s massive decline in mid-January and February. Game six would be in St. Paul on April 24th. So, scoring depth will be key in effecting any kind of upset. “I’m not going to rule him out, but I can’t tell you he’s in right now”, Stars coach Lindy Ruff said after Monday’s practice. He had 33 goals and 40 assists when his Achilles’ tendon was cut by an opponent’s skate in a March 17 game.
In the Pacific Division first-round series, the division champion Anaheim Ducks will draw the #1 wild card in the west, the Nashville Predators. I don’t think they can say that. Zach Parise and Mikko Koivu lead the way at forward, but Charlie Coyle and Jason Pominville have certainly earned additional responsibility in the preceding weeks.
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With Parise, Haula and Vanek on the shelf, the Wild are losing almost nearly 27 percent of their goal scoring from the regular season.
