2026 NHL Playoffs Stray Observations (Game 2): The grudge match begins as Dallas evens the series in 4-2 win over Minnesota
At last...two elite teams collide.
Game 1 didn’t even qualify as a salvo. It felt more like a sucker punch. Minnesota beat Dallas in all facets. Even-strength. Special teams. Offense. Defense. Et cetera. The Wild played like it was Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Stars played like it was the night before the All-Star break. But it was only one game. And one game is not where the grand narrative lies. However, it still felt bad. It felt like a bad omen. Especially with Dallas being the only team to be dominated in the first game of the series.
It Game 1 felt like the bad omen, then Game 2 felt like the blessing. The Stars looked not just animated, but revamped. Like everyone had their spinach after leaving it on the travel plane or something. It was the kind of performance that made Stars fans feel like everything will be okay. Everything was clicking. Even within the chaos.
The good times never roll in the playoffs. Especially this early. But it’s hard to understate what a performance Dallas managed as a team. Jake Oettinger had one of his best games in years. The blue line bent but didn’t break, and the forward lines looked cohesive enough to attack with consistency, intensity, and dare I say — structure!
It was also just an amusing game with lots and lots of punchlines (it’s not every day you see back to back too-many-men penalties in the dying minutes1). Of course, there were also some shenanigans, but we’ll get to those in the strays. For now the series is tied thanks to some goaltending heroics, Jason Robertson picking up where he left off versus Edmonton last year, and all of it owing zero thanks to the officiating. The series now moves to Minnesota where it will either be Dallas’ turn to take away home-ice advantage, Dallas’ turn to take over completely, or Dallas’ turn to fall terribly behind.
The grudge match begins
The first period was everything we expected from this series distilled into 20 minutes and then some. Wyatt Johnston opened the scoring off a very fortunate (okay let’s call it what it is: lucky) shot from the blue line, which was followed by a very slick goal by Brock Faber at four-on-four. In the meantime, the meat was clacking and the pace was clicking. It wasn’t Dallas’ greatest work — Jake Oettinger didn’t perform miracles by accident — but the energy was there, unlike in Game 1, and their starting goaltender nearly looked like prime Belfour.
Power plays
The Stars took the lead in the second period thanks to their power play. While the first game was a whipping that felt difficult to discuss anything positive about, it’s worth noting that the Stars’ power play didn’t go anywhere even in Game 1. Re-watching Saturday’s contest, the Stars have been getting plenty of chances and looks, suggesting that — as usual — the power play will have juice through thick and thin. It was also good to see Matt Duchene of all people net one. The narrative around him as a playoff performer is a valid criticism, and one only Duchene can answer himself. Monday night was a good start if he intends to fill the skates of Roope Hintz.
A digression: the league still sucks
You knew this was coming. And not just because you subscribe to this place. We all knew it. Not even Stars fans. But Toronto fans. Boston fans. Hockey fans around the world knew that somebody would cross the line in George Parros’ NHL sooner rather than later, and sure enough, Marcus Foligno made good on Parros promise to ‘make hockey violent again.’
You know my stance on this. It’s too late at night for me to muster the energy to write a proper rant, but the fact that it was assessed a major, and reduced down to a double-minor tells you everything you need to know about how serious the NHL is about player safety. What’s worse is that it wasn’t the only one. Nick Foligno elbowing Nils Lundkvist in the head; Kirill Kaprizov forearming Miro Heiskanen in the head. The coverage always lauds this stuff as “playoff hockey” and “prison rules” but all these descriptions do is normalize the kind of illegal plays that will end with someone getting seriously hurt because that’s exactly what has happened in the past. Bertuzzi on Moore, McSorley on Brashear, Cooke on Savard — how many more is it gonna take?
Robertson’s revenge tour
The Team USA snub is firmly in the rearview mirror for Jason Robertson, but it’s hard to imagine those feelings as absent in private. Robertson’s performance through two feels a little more pronounced. Yes, it has everything to do with winning a Stanley Cup and that in and of itself is plenty to be motivated for. And yes, it’s probably motivating to reverse the playoff narrative around you. But I can’t help but feel like there’s a little extra juice in just how many people Robertson is out to prove are wrong. Although this being a contract year certainly doesn’t hurt either.
Meandering Strays
Let me just say that even though Glen Gulutzan has said that Michael Bunting is healthy scratch, it’s entirely possible that Gulutzan is making the decision because of Bunting’s lack of 100 percent-ness. Without know for sure, I won’t get on my soapbox here (at least for long), but despite Bunting being completely lackluster in the regular season, he still deserves a shot. Dallas has been a team desperate for even-strength offense really all year. They were 16th in even-strength goals and 32nd in EV shot attempts. If he is healthy, Bunting may not be the most deserving player, but he is the rare Dallas depth forward that can generate offense. Unless Dallas wins the next three games in a row without him, the Stars need to find out if he can figure into the lineup.
Arttu Hyry drawing back in was well-earned, and arguably earned a long time ago. However, this was no depth performance from a depth player. It’s a testament to what Hyry can do that Glen Gulutzan trusted him at four-on-four opposite Quinn Hughes.
A two point night from Nils Lundkvist was not on my bingo card. Lundkvist is a player that Dallas really needs to be a factor if the blue line has designs of holding the line, and Lundkvist really passed tonight’s test even when elbows were flying at his head.
Good lord that open hit by Colin Blackwell.
Talk about a turnaround. On Saturday, Dallas was destroyed on the penalty kill. Tonight, the roles were completely reversed.
With the Wild missing Mats Zuccarello, you could tell it was felt, particularly on the power play. Good thing for Dallas that Hynes seems to think Tarasenko still has his legs left (he doesn’t), because not only did Tarasenko draw onto the top line, but he drew onto the top PP unit. Seems like it’s Minnesota’s turn to figure out how to adapt to being down a key forward.
For the life of my I can’t understand what John Hynes was doing. Their stars had already been out a long while before the power play. With only a few minutes left, you would have thought he’d at least call a timeout or failing that, a call for the extra attacker when Minnesota had possession.
Hyry looked so goooooood
(Unfortunate that Steel felt invisible on that line with Benn but he do work on the PK)
Would be so cool if player safety was more than the beginnings of a concept of a plan.
In all seriousness, could the players union sue the league for not abiding by its own rules protecting players?