Near the end of the regular season, a certain Colorado Avalanche reporter decided to stay in Texas and attend Dallas Stars practice instead of returning to Denver for a home game against the St. Louis Blues.
The idea was to collect quotes for a few stories, including one to run at the start of the second round about the rivalry and what it was like to chase the Avalanche for five straight months. Each interview with a player, every interaction with a member of the Dallas media ended essentially the same way.
“No disrespect to Minnesota, but … see you in a month.”
As the saying goes, best laid plans … yeah, that story will not be running in The Denver Post this weekend, and said reporter will not be back in North Texas in the coming days.
The Stars were the second-best team in the NHL for much of this season, but the Wild exploited some cracks in their depth chart and controlled most of the series at 5-on-5. So, instead of looking to exercise some demons from their recent past, the Avs will have the opportunity to get payback for ones from further back in the club’s history.
There are only four players in this series who were part of Minnesota’s seven-game victory in 2014 — Nathan MacKinnon and Gabe Landeskog for the Avs, Jonas Brodin and Jared Spurgeon for the Wild.
Here are some early observations and potential storylines from what could be the best second-round series of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
1. Quinn Hughes, Kirill Kaprizov and Matt Boldy are all terrific, world-class players. This round, just like the Dallas series, will almost certainly be decided by the “other guys.” Colorado’s next tier of core players beyond the big three of Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar and Martin Necas are better than Minnesota’s. But that was an advantage for the Stars as well, on paper. Dallas’ depth scoring evaporated. The Stars’ top-five scorers from the regular season all produced. The guy who was sixth (Roope Hintz) did not play because of an injury. Seventh through 12th — all players with at least 30 points in the regular season — combined for one goal and three points.
2. The Wild dominated the Stars at 5-on-5 … on the scoreboard. Dallas famously had one of the coldest cold stretches at 5-on-5 in recent NHL history, and relied almost entirely on the power play to stay afloat in the series. Some of that was definitely goaltending and short-sample variance, though. Minnesota outscored Dallas 9-1 when Hughes was on the ice at 5-on-5, but generated “only” 53.88% of the expected goals, per . That’s still good, but not dominant. The Stars even had a significant advantage in high-danger chances (29-21) when Hughes was out there.
3. Jesper Wallstedt had a great series in net for Minnesota. He was white-hot to start the season — although it took a while for the Wild to promote him from backup to an equal timeshare in net — and he’s been great since March 1. In between, there was a 15-game stretch (30 Wild games) during which he posted an .885 save percentage. The shape of his season looks closer to Mackenzie Blackwood’s than Scott Wedgewood’s. He met the postseason moment against Dallas, now he has to prove he can do it for a longer stretch of games.
4. Get ready to hear the phrase “heavy hockey” a lot in the coming days. When the Wild took DU alum Bobby Brink out of the lineup in favor of old friend Nico Sturm, there was no mistake about how Minnesota’s third and fourth lines were going to play against Dallas. It’s five guys who want to thump opposing players at every chance, and Vladimir Tarasenko, who, while more of a scorer in his long career, is built like a small tank and doesn’t mind the physical stuff, either. And now those guys believe they bullied the Stars into the offseason, so the Avs should expect plenty of that as well.
5. Jared Bednar didn’t get particularly focused on matchups in the first round. That might change in this series. Minnesota spent two-thirds of the Dallas series with Kaprizov and Boldy on separate lines, but also put them together when the Wild needed more offense. When they’re together, and on the ice with Hughes and Brock Faber, Bednar will likely try to get the Brock Nelson line or the Jack Drury line out there as much as he can.
6. Two key defensemen are front and center in the next few days — Colorado’s Josh Manson and Minnesota’s Jonas Brodin. Different styles, but both are defensive guys who typically play on the second pairing. Both missed the end of the last round with injuries. Brodin blocked a shot in Game 5, reportedly left the arena on crutches and in a walking boot and then didn’t play in Game 6. Wild officials have said he’s day-to-day. Manson skated on Friday and remains a possibility for Game 1. Both teams are … lacking, when it comes to defensive depth.
7. Two second-line forwards to watch as well: Colorado’s Valeri Nichushkin and Minnesota’s Marcus Johansson. They combined for one goal (from the latter) and no assists in the first round. One has a long playoff track record (Nichushkin) of success. The other does not. If the Avs contain Johansson at the start of this series, will Brink get a second chance in his place?
8. This could be the case in all four series if the Avalanche make it to the Stanley Cup Final, but Colorado needs the third line to cook against Minnesota. Landeskog, Nazem Kadri and Nicolas Roy produced at key points in the Kings series. The Avs need that again. That line will likely see a lot of one of the two rugged Wild lines, and they need to be much better against them than Dallas’ depth guys were.
9. Makar has had some great games when Hughes is sharing the ice with him. Hughes and Faber were fantastic against the Stars. Makar scored in each of the final two games against Los Angeles and was the best defenseman in the series. This will be a different challenge. If Makar and Devon Toews have a greater all-around impact than Hughes and Faber, it would be very hard for the Wild to win this series.
10. How will this series be officiated? If the Avs had faced the Stars, they would have loved a loose, let ’em play whistle, mostly because Dallas’ power play is fantastic and Colorado’s has not been. Both Dallas and Minnesota had 25 power plays in the first round, and the Stars scored six more (10-4) than the Wild. Minnesota had the third-best power play in the NHL this season, right behind Dallas. Would the Avs rather just play at 5-on-5 as much as possible? Maybe. But there’s a fine line between the officials letting ’em play, and a physical team hooking and holding its way into a lower-scoring series.
