Game 2 is Wednesday night before the series shifts to Minnesota for Games 3 and 4 on Friday and Sunday.
"We've got guys banged up," Head Coach Dean Evason said. "We are just protecting ourselves."
The morning skate revealed a little about who might play. Joel Eriksson Ek, John Klingberg and Oskar Sundqvist all skated but Sundqvist, who suffered an injury April 6 against Pittsburgh, did not skate after the main group left suggesting he could draw into the lineup. Eriksson Ek and Klingberg skated extra time along with Alex Goligoski and Walker.
Marcus Johansson and Frederick Gaudreau and Matt Dumba did not skate although it was an optional skate.
As for a starting netminder there has been no formal announcement from Evason, although it would be noteworthy if the coaching staff decided not to go back to Filip Gustavsson after turning in a franchise-record 51 stops in the Game 1 win. Still, both Gustavsson and veteran Marc-Andre Fleury took shots in the net normally signifying the starting netminder's goal and seemed to delay leaving the morning skate. Generally the first goaltender off the ice is that game's starter.
--
Joe Pavelski will not be available to the Dallas Stars for Game 2 after a heavy hit from Dumba in Game 1 after which Pavelski struck his head on the ice. Dallas head coach Pete DeBoer said Pavelski is in concussion protocol and that he spoke to him Wednesday morning and that the veteran forward is getting better. The two were together in San Jose in the playoffs in 2019 when Pavelski suffered a severe head injury in a series against Vegas. "He was in a much worse place that time than he is this time, but still obviously pretty bad," DeBoer said.
The Stars called up Riley Tufte. The 25-year-old 6-foot-6 winger is from Minnesota and played three seasons at the University of Minnesota-Duluth.
--
The double-overtime game Monday gave various coaches on the Wild coaching staff a chance to address the team between periods. Evason tries to have different coaches deliver between-period messages during the course of the season to vary the message and how it's delivered.
"Everyone's playing on our team, everybody's coaching on our coaching staff, so why would one guy just have the voice?" Evason said as a way of explanation. "It doesn't matter who delivers, it's our voice when we come out of the coaching room, the same as when we step on the ice. It's our team. It's not one guy. It's important."
The bottom line is players get tired of hearing from one person and the head coach sometimes runs out of things to say.
"And/or you can only kick the garbage can 10 times before they're like, okay, 11th time, woof, great, kicked the can again, right?" Evason said. "But if somebody else comes in they go well wait Bob (Woods) hasn't yelled at us for a year it must be serious. You have to have different voices I guess. Everybody delivers a little differently. Maybe it allows the guys to maybe pay attention more."
