The Wild Have Changed a Lot From Last Playoff Series vs. Stars – The Hockey Writers – Minnesota Wild

The NHL regular season has officially come to a close, and the playoffs are about to start, which means the Minnesota Wild will face the Dallas Stars in the first-round for the second time in the past four seasons. There’s quite a rivalry between these two teams, and there’s definitely no love lost between them. It’s safe to say this is going to be an intense battle from start to finish. 

When you break things down between the two teams, they’re pretty evenly matched in terms of depth and skill. They’ll start their series on Saturday afternoon, Apr. 18, and this one will likely go the full seven games. In this article, we’ll look at how this series is highly anticipated, what the Wild have to do to win, and why it’ll be different for the Wild this year, starting with the anticipation. 

Wild & Stars Most Anticipated

This series has likely been one of, if not the most anticipated, match-ups of the NHL postseason for 2026. Outside of these two teams being among the top five in the NHL for most of the season, they play similar styles, and they have an intense rivalry that has been building over the seasons. 

It’s not quite like rivalries of the past, but it’s growing and got a huge boost following the playoff series of 2023, when the Stars won after the Wild dug a hole they couldn’t get out of. That series really gave fans a reason to chirp each other, and it’s been an ongoing thing since. While the fans love the rivalry, the team’s excited too, especially with a chance to get some redemption from the last time these two met in the postseason. 

Both teams have changed since that series, and the Wild have become way more disciplined. They were one of the least penalized teams this season, and hopefully, they can keep that going into the postseason. That was their downfall when they fell to the Stars back in 2023, but they know they can’t make that mistake again. 

Wild Have to Find a Way 

There are a lot of things the Wild have to do to get a series win over the Stars, but first and foremost, they have to play with the control they did for most of the season. When they play with confidence and control, they can beat anyone in this league, and they proved that during the regular season. Of course, in the postseason, every team finds another level to their game, or they go home quickly, and the Wild have the ability to find several more levels.

They have to believe they can do it, and while that may sound silly for professionals to have to believe they can win, the mental side of this game is just as important as the physical. If they don’t believe that they can do it, then they won’t. The Wild have shown that belief so far, and hopefully it sticks with them. 

In terms of the technical side of the game, the success of the special teams goes without saying, but the Wild have to win faceoffs in every aspect if they want to get past the Stars. They’ve upgraded their physicalness, but they don’t have a lot of room for error when it comes to winning faceoffs. There are other factors that will go into the Wild winning, but that’s one of the biggest, if not the biggest. 

Wild Are Different 

As stated a few times before, the main reason the Wild can win this series is they are different than they were the last time they faced the Stars in the postseason. Of course, every year the team changes, but their mentality has changed a lot over the seasons. They aren’t the team that takes undisciplined penalties and heads to the penalty box over and over for the same thing. 

Several of their players who struggled walking the line when it came to discipline in that series have toned their style back; one of those players is Marcus Foligno. They still have edges to their game, but they don’t cross the line nearly as often, and their team has benefited from it, at least during the regular season. However, during the postseason, the Wild may need a bit more edge, not a lot, just a little, to help fend off the Stars. 

This series is going to have a lot of physicality, and every player is going to have to be ready for the extra bumps and bruises. The Wild added some bigger bodies, like Michael McCarron, to prepare for the postseason. Although they weren’t 100 percent guaranteed to play the Stars in the first round at the time, they had an inkling, and they prepared. 

It’ll be interesting to see how this series unfolds, but it’s no doubt going to be fun from beginning to end, no matter who wins. Everyone wants to see good hockey, and that’s what this series should be; however, hopefully the Wild can find a way to come out on top and get to the second round for the first time since the 2014-2015 season.