I'm on the opposite side here. It's commonly said that "offense wins games, defense wins championships" and Minnesota has the Stars beat on the defensive side of the match up. We have 3 top 2 d-men and all of the d-men (with the possible exception of Nate Prosser) would easily be top 4 on any other team.
While we are rather weak at centre (our best is probably Mikko Koivu) we can go line to line with just about anyone and play with them. Our top line tends to be made up of Zach Praise-Mikael Granlund-Charlie Coyle and of thise Coyle is the one to watch out for. He's big at 6ft 3, 215lbs and fast and has some of the sweetest hands you'll ever see. He crashes the net, plays hard in the corners and can be a game breaker if he has to be. Zach Parise is the definition of a grinder. He's a bit smaller but will fight with the best and get to dirty areas. Coyle and Parise draw penalties like Edmonton draws 1st overall picks. Mikhael Granlund was supposed to ve our #1C of the future but hasn't really become it. He's smaller and a bit more slippery. When he needs to, he can light the jets.
Our 2nd line is normally made up of Jason Zucker-Mikko Koivu-Thomas Vanek. Zucker is as fast, if not faster than Granlund, and is the fastest peraon in the ice 99%of the time. Koivu is solid. There isn't much more to say about him. He does his job. Not fancy but gets it done. Vanek is Vanek. He doesn't try much if the time, but is still kne if the best snipers out there.
Our 3rd line is our impact line, made up of Nino Neiderrieter-Eric Haula-Jason Pomminville. They've caught fire recently and were scoring goals at will during the Wild's run to get to the playoffs. Nino is big as well at 6ft 2, 210. He's another silky smooth sniper and got the over time winner in game 7 against the Colorado Avalanche a few years ago so he scores big goals. Haula was a 7tj round pick by the Wild and will light it up in the next few years. He plays in the same style as Praise, going to the front of the net and creating havoc. Pomminville was snake bitten at the beginning of the season but has picked it up a bit. He can also score big goals when he has to. Expect to see thus lone matching against the North Star's top line a lot.
Line 4: Jarrett Stoll, Ryan Carter, Chris Porter, David Jones, Zach Dalpe, Kurtus Gabriel, Brett Bulmer, Tyler Graovac. Mix and match. All sligtly hard nosed. Carter, Gabriel, Bulmer will drop the gloves.
We can match Dallas in goaltending easily with Devan Dubnyk and Darcy Kuemper. They are solid. Not quite Holtby or Luango but they can both steal a game or 2 for us.
I'm going to have to pick the Wild in 6-7 because we will stifle Dallas's offense and keep their defense moving. The Stars have a defense that doesn't lokw having to move and can be exploited there, as well as goaltending that has been shaky throughout the season.
