Dallas Stars capitalize on Minnesota Wild’s bewildering goalie switch for Game 2 win

Minnesota Wild coach Dean Evason committed a cardinal sin of playoff hockey when he opted for regular season routine rather than go with the easy math, and just play the hot glove.

Why do these people make it so hard on themselves?

The Dallas Stars blew out Minnesota 7-3 in Game 2 on Wednesday night, and Evason must wear some of this one.

Shortly before Wednesday night’s game, the Wild announced that veteran Marc-Andre Fleury would start in net rather than Filip Gustavsson.

“Not surprising. They’ve been pretty transparent in their conversations, even with the media, that they were going to play both guys,” Dallas Stars coach Peter DeBoer said after the game. “We were ready for either guy tonight... I’m not surprised and I wouldn’t be surprised to see (Fleury) again.”

Not sure how the state of Minnesota feels about that.

The Stars tied their first round Stanley Cup playoff series at one, and other than one period they have out-played the Wild through two games.

On Wednesday night, Stars forward Roope Hintz scored the first playoff hat trick in franchise history. A certain brain-dead coaching decision helped the Stars, too.

The Wild won Game 1 late in double overtime thanks to some fortunate deflections, and spectacular play from goalie Gustavsson. Gustavsson stopped 51 shots in Game 1.

Fifty one. 51. Fifty one of 53 shots. Some of those saves were unfair. Sorry, Filip, but you’re on the bench for Game 2.

How does that conversation go down?

Fleury found out Tuesday that he was going to play Wednesday night.

The two rotated for much of the season, especially late as the playoffs approached. Evason had no problem going with the hot goalie for a stretch if he thought it was appropriate.

If stopping 51 of 53 shots in the playoffs isn’t appropriate, what does he need to see? For Gustavsson to swallow fire while playing goal?

“It’s just what we do. Nothing on (Fleury) at all. It’s all on us,” Evanson said regarding his team’s performance in Game 2.

You don’t switch unless you have to, and Evanson didn’t have to do anything other than start a goalie who stood on his hair follicles to win Game 1.

Fleury is a fine, veteran goalie who has won in the postseason, and has multiple Stanley Cup rings. He’s not some AHL bum.

That is still zero reason for Evanson to make this switch.

In Evanson’s defense, his forwards and defensemen decided collectively not to play defense in Game 2. Even had Evanson been able to start an in-his-prime Dominik Hasek in net on Wednesday, it may not have made any difference.

The Wild forwards and D-men repeatedly left Fleury exposed and vulnerable to fat scoring chances he couldn’t stop. Fleury allowed seven goals and made 24 saves.

“Bottom line is I didn’t make any key saves in the game,” Fleury said.

No lies here. It needs to be repeated again and again just how bad his teammates were in front of him.

“They played great and we did not,” Evason said.

No lies here, either.

Would Gustavsson have made the saves Fleury did not?

The NHL playoffs are loaded with examples of goalies who find God for a series, or multiple series, and carry their teams to go on odds-defying runs. Hell, Ron Tugnutt once did it.

Evanson denied his team, and his hot goaltender, the chance to find out if Gustavsson had another Game 1 performance in him for Game 2.

Other than one 15-second sequence in the second period, the Wild skaters were awful, whereas the Stars were on it from the opening puck drop.

A little more than four minutes into the game, Hintz scored a short-handed goal on a breakaway for the game’s first score.

The Stars special teams have dominated these first two games; the Stars’ two goals in their Game 1 loss were on the power play, and they added three more in Game 2.

They led 4-1 in the second period before the Wild converted a pair of chances to make it interesting.

But the Wild cutting the deficit to one-score didn’t last long. The Wild kept giving the Stars chances. Fleury couldn’t stop any of them.

The Stars kept burying them.

The question for the Wild is do they continue their goalie rotation? Evason would only say they’d “talk about it.”

If the Stars skaters continue to out-play the Wild the way they have in much of these first two games, it won’t matter who is in net for the Wild.

It’s also hard to see how they could justify sending Fleury out there again any time soon.