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Wild Blog: Tale Of The Tape - Minnesota Wild Vs. Dallas Stars

By Craig D. Schroepfer (@CDSWCCO)

For the fourth year in a row, the Minnesota Wild are in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, where they will once again face the champion from the Central Division.

This year's champion is a familiar face to fans in the State of Hockey: the Dallas Stars, who called Minnesota home until they moved to Texas in 1993.

RELATED: 4 Reasons The Minnesota Wild Has Playoff Potential

There will be plenty of time during this series to reminisce of the days when the North Stars played at Met Center in Bloomington, but for now the question is: Can the Wild do what they have done the last two years in the playoffs? Can Minnesota upset the Central Division champions in the first round?

Let's go to the tale of the tape.

FORWARDS:

The one thing Dallas does better than any team is put the puck in the net. The Stars led the NHL in scoring with 267 goals on the season. Leading the way for Dallas was Jamie Benn, who reached the 40-goal mark for the first time in his career with 41 goals.

Following Benn is a pair of 30 goal scorers in Tyler Seguin and Jason Spezza, who each had 33 goals on the season. Seguin has missed the last few weeks with an Achilles injury and has just resumed practicing for Dallas. He is expected to return to the lineup soon for the Stars, possibly as early as game one.

Veteran forward Patrick Sharp came over from Chicago in a trade and scored 20 goals for Dallas. His presence adds veteran leadership for a young team that's still learning how to win in the post-season.

Minnesota comes into this series without two of their top forwards.

Zach Parise, who led the Wild in goals this season with 25, is out indefinitely with an upper-body injury and will not travel with the team for games one and two in Dallas.

Also injured is Thomas Vanek who had 18 goals on the season for Minnesota. Vanek has been battling an upper body injury of his own and is listed as week-to-week. Vanek also did not travel to Dallas and will miss games one and two.

Charlie Coyle, who was second on the Wild with 21 goals, Jason Zucker, Nino Neiderreiter and Mikael Granlund will be asked to step up and fill the void on the ice with Parise and Vanek out of the lineup.

That's a tall task to ask when going against an explosive team like Dallas.

ADVANTAGE: STARS

DEFENSEMAN:

On the blue line, things get a little better for Minnesota as there isn't as big a gap in talent as there is at forward.

Ryan Suter once again was the best defenseman for the Wild, scoring 51 points (8G, 43A), finishing plus 10 on the season and averaging just over 28 minutes of ice time.

The rest of the blue line for Minnesota consists of Jared Spurgeon, Marco Scandella, Jonas Brodin, Matt Dumba, Nate Prosser and Christian Folin. The player to watch here is Dumba.

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Dumba has one of the best shots from the blue line in the NHL, making him a threat to score whenever he touches the puck. Dumba also played poorly down the stretch, causing him to be scratched against San Jose in the next to last game of the season.

With Suter, Spurgeon, Scandella and Brodin, you know what you are getting whenever they take the ice. Dumba has a lot of raw talent and needs to play better for the Wild to have a chance to win this series.

Dallas is led on their blue line by John Klingberg, who had 58 points on the season (10 G, 48 A) and was a plus 22 on the ice. Only in his second NHL season, Klingberg showed flashes of being an offensive force on defense and played like a future Norris Trophy candidate.

Rounding out the blue line for Dallas are Johnny Oduya, Kris Russell, Alex Goligoski, Jason Demers and Jordie Benn. Of this group, the player to watch is Oduya.

Oduya came over with Sharp from Chicago before the season and adds a veteran presence on the blue line. Like Sharp, Oduya knows what it takes to win in the post-season -- something Minnesota doesn't have on their blue line.

Of the two teams, Suter is the best defenseman overall. But when you compare the depth of players side by side, a slight edge goes to Dallas due the offense provided from their blue line.

ADVANTAGE: STARS

GOALTENDING:

The man in net for Minnesota is Devan Dubnyk. Dubnyk finished the season with a record of 32-26-6 with a save percentage of .918 and a Goals Against Average of 2.33.

Dubnyk hasn't looked as sharp as he did last year when he solidified the goaltending position for the Wild. For Minnesota to win this series, Dubnyk needs to be the best player on the ice.

Dallas had two goaltenders sharing the duties in net this season.

Antti Niemi started 43 games, finishing the season with a record of 25-13-7, a save percentage of .905 and a GAA of 2.67.

Kari Lehtonen started 39 games for the Stars, finishing with a record of 25-10-2 with a save percentage of .906 and a GAA of 2.76.

Neither player stepped up to seize the job for Dallas during the season. As to which player will start in net, only Stars head coach Lindy Ruff knows for sure.

No playoff team gave up more goals this season than Dallas, who allowed 230. When you have two goaltenders, you really have none. Because of this, a slight edge goes to Minnesota.

ADVANTAGE: WILD

SPECIAL TEAMS:

Dallas had 58 power play goals on the season, scoring 22 percent of the time with the man advantage. Only the San Jose Sharks scored more power play goals on the season.

On the penalty kill, Dallas gave up 44 goals on the season, four goals below the league average of 48. The Stars penalty killing percentage was 82 percent, good for 10th in the NHL.

Minnesota scored 48 power play goals during the season and had a power play percentage of 18.53.

On the penalty kill, the Wild allowed 45 goals on the season and had a penalty killing percentage of 77.94, the fourth worst in the NHL.

I'm not sure how successful the Wild will be with the man advantage with Parise and Vanek out of the lineup. I shudder to think of what the Stars can do when they have the man advantage against Minnesota's penalty kill.

ADVANTAGE: STARS

COACHING:

Behind the bench for Dallas you have Lindy Ruff, an 18-year coaching veteran whose teams have made the post-season nine times. Ruff has a playoff coaching record of 59-48, reaching the conference finals four times and coaching in the 1999 Stanley Cup Final.

Behind the bench for Minnesota is John Torchetti, who is an interim coach for the third time in his career. This will be Torchetti's first trip to the Stanley Cup Playoffs as a head coach. The last time Torchetti coached in the Stanley Cup Playoffs he was an assistant with Chicago when the Blackhawks won the cup in 2010.

Torchetti has done a decent job behind the bench given the circumstances when he took over in February, but with the experience Ruff has in his coaching career, Dallas has the edge here.

ADVANTAGE: STARS

PREDICTION:

This is not a good match-up for the Minnesota Wild. The Dallas Stars skate very well and score goals better than any other team in the NHL.

For the Wild to win this series they need to do what they did against Colorado in the playoffs two years ago: Get into skating lanes and slow down the Stars in transition. Minnesota is not good enough to win a high-scoring game with the Dallas Stars.

If Minnesota can hold the Stars to 1-2 goals each game, and Dubnyk is the best player on the ice, the Wild will have a chance in this series.

Minnesota might be able to do that for one game, but the Wild don't have the talent up front or the depth to beat Dallas in a seven-game series.

STARS WIN THE SERIES IN FIVE GAMES

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