In an earlier era of pro hockey, some arenas had ice surfaces that were significantly smaller or otherwise different than others, similar to baseball fields’ varying dimensions. At the legendary Boston Garden, for example, the ice sheet was 191 feet long by 83 feet wide, making the games played there somewhat quicker and more physical, with less space available to make plays.
In the modern NHL, the standard ice surface size is 200 feet long by 85 feet wide in all 32 rinks. But if the room to move for Minnesota Wild standouts like Kirill Kaprizov and Matt Boldy seemed reduced in Game 2, credit the Dallas defenders and their well-executed plans to cover those two like a blanket in hopes of reducing their effectiveness.
Minnesota’s Matt Boldy tries to work around Dallas forward Miro Heiskanen during the Wild’s 6-1 victory in Game 1 in Dallas on April 18, 2026. Boldy scored twice but was held scoreless in a 4-2 loss in Game 2. (Stacy Revere/Getty Images)
Heading into Wednesday night’s third game of the series, Wild coach John Hynes expected more of the same from the Stars, and efforts by his own team to find more room to move.
“That’s part of what playoffs is. You know, you’ve got to be able to fight for your ice and you’ve got to be able to play against tight-checking games,” Hynes said following the team’s Wednesday morning skate at TRIA Rink. “With those two guys, you see (that) each game within the game presents different things, and then postgame you gather information from that.”
Shadowing of the other teams’ standouts has been a successful playoff tactic for generations. When the Dallas franchise still played home games in the Twin Cities suburbs, the Minnesota North Stars’ 1991 run to the Stanley Cup Final was fueled at least in part by successfully following and frustrating star players such as the Blues’ Brett Hull and the Oilers’ Mark Messier.
Players who find themselves being tailed tend to take it first as a badge of honor.
“Those guys are two of the best players in the world, and they’ve been unbelievable so far in this series,” said Wild forward Marcus Johansson of Kaprizov and Boldy, before Game 3.
Sharing a line with Boldy and Joel Eriksson Ek — each of whom scored twice in the Wild’s 6-1 Game 1 win in Dallas — Johansson noted that if the Stars double-cover one player, that will naturally leave others open with a chance to make a game-changing play.
“We can’t just rely on them. All of us need to step up,” he said. “I mean, we played good. We could’ve been up after the first period of Game 2, but that’s just the way it goes sometimes. And yeah, we’ve all gotta pull on the rope and we’ve all gotta help out.”
Playing their own postseason-style of defense, the Wild spent the first two games tailing and trying to control the impact of Dallas standouts Wyatt Johnston and Jason Robertson, and have held them each to just one even-strength goal in the first two games. Robertson got Dallas’s lone goal in Game 1 on a power play, and Johnston had an empty net goal in Game 2.
The message before the Wild’s first home game of the series Wednesday was a reinforcement that keeping a mental balance and not getting frustrated by having a shadow as the series gets deeper.
“I think it’s to be expected that it’s gonna be tight-checking and an intense series, whether it’s Bolds or Kirill or anybody else,” Hynes said. “But it’s the same thing that we’re trying to do to their guys, as well.”
