Of all of the games played in the first two days of the NHL playoffs, none looked overmatched as badly as the Minnesota Wild.
They've got a ton of problems heading into the second game of their series against the Dallas Stars not the least of which is the fact that their best player, Zach Parise still isn't available.
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ODDS ANALYSIS
The Stars have now won their last six games played here at the AAC, and they figure to be relatively big favorites once again in this one. They were -175 on the moneyline on Thursday night, and even though it took a little while to get on the board, there was never a doubt that they were the better of the two teams.
When Dallas picked up the second goal in the second period to double its lead, the Wild never felt like they were back in the game.
GOALIE REPORT
Devan Dubnyk really played a fantastic game on Thursday. He was peppered with 14 shots in the first period and stuffed them all, and the goals which he allowed were fantastic strikes he couldn't do a heck of a lot about.
When the dust settled, Dubnyk only finished stopping 28-of-31 shots, but he deserved a better fate and a lot better help from his offense.
Lindy Ruff made no indication who he was going with in the pipes to start this series, but after Kari Lehtonen posted a shutout in Game 1, there's no doubt that he'll be back out there on Saturday night.
Let's not pretend like Lehtonen had a tough night, though. The Wild, playing without three of their top forwards, managed just 22 shots on net for the game, and there weren't a ton of really great scoring chances he had to squash.
LIVE BETTING
Minnesota only had two shots on goal in that horrible first period, and the tone was set at that point that it was going to be in a lot of trouble the rest of the way. Eventually, all of the pressure told with four goals, though the last was an empty netter and wasn't charged to Dubnyk.
The real issue came with all of the penalties which the Wild took. They're really only two legitimate lines deep right now and will probably be that way for the duration of this series. The last thing they need is to head on the penalty kill six times against a team which had three 30+ goal scorers in the regular season and one of the best power play units in the league.
QUICK PICK
Dallas is playing really well right now, and Minnesota just looks lost. There's a really good case to be made that the Wild have to be better than they were in the 4-0 loss in Game 1, but we aren't going to take anything away from the hosts either.
Dallas is definitively the better of these teams, and though we hate laying spreads like the -175 we were faced with on Thursday, we don't see any choices here until the Wild prove that they belong here on the same ice against the Central Division winners.
NHL Odds: Stars 3, Wild 1
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