Game of the Week: Wild vs. Canucks

Opening faceoff: No. 10 seed Minnesota vs. No. 7 Vancouver, Game 2, best-of-5 series, Qualifying Round, 7:30 p.m. Minnesota leads the series, 1-0. Winner plays No. 4 in Western Conference (will be determined by results of top seeds round-robin tournament).

Vote is In: Our social followers clearly skewed to the Kraken's instant rival Vancouver in the vote on which Tuesday game to highlight. Possible scouting mission for future PNW battles? Or maybe props to Matt Dumba and his historic stand against racism before Saturday games started in hub city Edmonton.

VAN Outlook: The Canucks might a year ahead of schedule in terms of what most media members see as a team on the rise. But the time is now for young forwards Elias Pettersson, Brock Boeser and Bo Horvat. Only Pettersson looked like his in-season self over the whole three periods of Game 1. Expect Boeser and Horvat to perform better Tuesday night. Veteran forwards J.T. Miller, Tyler Toffoli and Tanner Pearson were gained in trades by GM Jim Benning to steady the group. You know what time it is for them too.

VAN Player to Watch: Defenseman Quinn Hughes. He played the most minutes of any Canuck in Game 1. He is going to be great in this league for many years ahead.

MIN Outlook: Goalie Alex Stalock started the 2019-20 season as a career NHL backup. He wrested the starting job from Devan Dubnyk by late January and helped keep the Wild in the hunt for a playoff spot (which worked out when 12 Western Conference were tabbed). Stalock benefited from the stellar play of defensemen Ryan Suter, Jared Spurgeon (who also scored two goals) and the aforementioned Dumba. Analytics experts know that MIN is among league leaders in preventing high-danger scoring chances. Game 2 will come down to whether this D-group can stop a high-talent and potentially high-danger contingent of VAN forwards.

MIN Player to Watch:Due respect to 23-year-old Kevin Fiala, the Wild's best offensive performer in January/February/early March, but going with personal favorite Mats Zuccarello, who starred and whirled and scored for Norway during the 2010 Winter Olympics, humbly suggested at press conferences that he would love to try his luck in the NHL. After nine seasons with the New York Rangers (and a couple games with Dallas), Zuccarello signed a contract that was considered pricey by some NHL observers. Let's see if Zuccarello pays postseason dividends.