For Stars players and coaches, however, it was still another couple of hours before they could hit the hay.

Both were up late. That much is probably obvious. But Gulutzan was in his PJ’s far before Duchene was, and the two offered a glimpse into what goes on after a drawn-out playoff overtime game like Wednesday’s.

“I had my media after the game, and then we had two bus times on the board, for the guys and the coaches,” Gulutzan explained to “The Hardline” on Thursday. “Our bus time going back to the hotel was 1:45. So I got back at about 2:20, 2:15. About 3 o’clock by the time I actually fell asleep. Didn’t do any work last night, got almost five periods to go through today. So we’ve just been grinding all day, each coach, we’re not meeting today, we’re gonna come together tomorrow with each guy doing their work.”

Duchene, however, required a bit more of a cooldown period, and was a couple hours behind his coach in getting to bed.

“I went to bed at 5 a.m.,” a sleepy Duchene said. “So, struggling a little bit. … That’s easily the latest game I’ve ever played, I think the double-overtime game against Colorado a couple years ago was a 7 [o’clock] start local. I’ve been in a few double-OT games but never one that started at 8:50 local.”

Duchene spent over 27 minutes on the ice in Game 3, though he told “The Sweet Spot” that all the power play time made for a relatively light 27 minutes. He also scored the game-tying goal in the third period that sent the game to overtime, and saved another goal with a right-place-right-time defensive play to back up Jake Oettinger.

Busy night for Duchene. Understandable that it took him some time to come down off the high of the double-OT victory.

“It takes the players a lot longer to wind down, because they’re wound up so high,” Gulutzan said. “The coaches are up early and grinding the whole day, by night time we need a little sleep at 2:30.”

Luckily for both sides they get an extra day off before Saturday’s Game 4 to rest and recoup, although Gulutzan joked that he suggested a mandatory morning skate for his guys on Thursday morning.

“It didn’t go over well,” Gulutzan said.