He said normally he wouldn’t mind if the Wild go with a spread on the power play and try to make the play to get it into the slot because if the Stars are reading it right and defending that area it will force Minnesota to keep the puck on the perimeter.
When that doesn’t happen, the Wild’s dangerous power play, ranked third in the League in the regular season (25.2 percent), is given almost a free Grade A look.
“It’s not about packing it in, but when the puck goes below the goal line you don’t want it to come out into the slot,” Gulutzan said. “Spreads are usually ineffective, but we got beat by it. That’s an adjustment we have to make.”
3. Second quicks and the rocking chair
Gulutzan had a way with hockey terms after Game 1.
He said the Wild were better with its “second quicks” in Game 1, meaning the Stars were too slow with their support to the puck, that the Wild got there first and that’s why they won most of the puck battles and therefore were able to generate more offense.
Gulutzan also said the Stars didn’t take the ice in front of them to create transition and they were instead “trying to sit back and make plays out of a rocking chair.”
Despite the five-goal difference, this series is expected to be close like the teams were all season. They played four games and each scored a total of 13 goals, so watch for who has quicker puck support, who wins more battles and which team takes the ice it has to create offense through transition.
“We can move our legs a lot more and try to skate with the puck more than what we did last game,” Stars defenseman Miro Heiskanen said. “I think there’s probably more open ice than you think sometimes. We looked at the video and there’s more room to skate and carry the puck.”
Wild projected lineup
Kirill Kaprizov — Ryan Hartman — Mats Zuccarello
Marcus Johansson — Joel Eriksson Ek — Matt Boldy
Vladimir Tarasenko — Danila Yurov — Yakov Trenin
Marcus Foligno — Michael McCarron — Nick Foligno
Quinn Hughes — Brock Faber
Jonas Brodin — Jared Spurgeon
Jake Middleton — Zach Bogosian
Jesper Wallstedt
Filip Gustavsson
Scratched: Bobby Brink, Robby Fabbri, Viking Gustafsson-Nyberg, Daemon Hunt, Matt Kiersted, Jeff Petry, Nico Sturm
Injuries: None
Stars projected lineup
Justin Hryckowian — Wyatt Johnston — Mikko Rantanen
Jason Robertson — Matt Duchene — Mavrik Bourque
Sam Steel — Arttu Hyry — Jamie Benn
Oskar Back — Radek Faksa — Colin Blackwell
Esa Lindell — Miro Heiskanen
Thomas Harley — Nils Lundkvist
Lian Bichsel — Tyler Myers
Jake Oettinger
Casey DeSmith
Scratched: Michael Bunting, Kyle Capobianco, Adam Erne, Ilya Lyubushkin, Alexander Petrovic
Injured: Nathan Bastian (hand), Roope Hintz (lower body), Tyler Seguin (ACL)
Status report
Bogosian (maintenance) did not take part in the morning skate but will be in the Wild lineup, which will be the same from Game 1. … Hintz will remain unavailable for Game 3 on Wednesday, per Gulutzan. The forward has not skated since his injury sustained March 6.
