Some Thoughts on Stars/Wild Lineups for Game 1, Nils Lundkvist's Extension, and Playoff Mind Games

The fun part starts tomorrow

Miro Heiskanen is likely going to play in Game 1 tomorrow afternoon. This is, by far, the most important thing we learned at practice today.

Heiskanen skated for all of practice, participating in drills, special teams, and line rushes alongside Esa Lindell. After some initial side-to-side swiveling after first getting on the ice, Miro Heiskanen looked pretty much like Miro Heiskanen, which is to say one of the best defensemen in the NHL.

Gulutzan didn’t give the final confirmation after practice, but he came about as close as you can to doing so before adding the caveat that the team’s training staff would ultimately determine Heiskanen’s readiness.

“I think there’s a good chance,” Gulutzan said. “He made it through practice, so I’m hoping he can go. I can’t say to you right now that it’s 100%, but I would think that as long as everything goes good, he should be in.”

Gulutzan also pointed out that one key to matching up against Minnesota is to avoid letting their blue line dictate the speed of the game. One suspects the Stars’ forecheck will be targeted in such a manner to restrict the blue line from doing that, though we’ll have to wait and see exactly what their approach looks like tomorrow. Anyway, just something to file away in the ol’ brain box, for now.

With Heiskanen in the lineup, the Stars rolled these lines in their initial rushes:

Steel-Johnston-Rantanen
Robertson-Duchene-Bourque
Bunting-Hryckowian-Benn
Bäck-Faksa-Erne

Lindell-Heiskanen
Harley-Lundkvist
Bichsel-Myers

Jake Oettinger, of course, will start Game 1. Casey DeSmith was also present, with both goalies wearing some new gear:

The big name not on the ice today was Roope Hintz, who did not participate in morning skate, and wasn’t around the rink at all that I saw, whereas Tyler Seguin and Nathan Bastian were both wearing street clothes rinkside at the beginning of practice. So perhaps Hintz was working out and/or receiving treatment elsewhere, but regardless, Dallas continues to say that he won’t be playing tomorrow or Monday.

Further to that point, Glen Gulutzan had a tad more to say about Hintz on the Ticket Friday afternoon, (with a digression on Heiskanen, too):