Minnesota Wild defenseman Jonas Brodin will not play in Game 6 on the team\u2019s first-round series against the Dallas Stars due to a lower-body injury, coach John Hynes said Thursday.<\/p>\n
Brodin got hurt in Game 5 blocking a shot and was seen leaving American Airlines Center on crutches, with a walking boot on his right foot.<\/p>\n
Jeff Petry will come in and play with Zach Bogosian on the third pair. Jake Middleton will move from the third pair to the second and play with long-time partner, captain Jared Spurgeon.<\/p>\n
Hynes said Brodin is day-to-day and wouldn\u2019t commit beyond Thursday\u2019s game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t be encouraged yet,\u201d Hynes said. \u201cIt\u2019s really for today. It\u2019s one of the things where guys get evaluated and it\u2019s a little bit of a moving target. Today, he\u2019ll be out. But I\u2019d classify him as day-to-day because as the day goes on or tomorrow, there could be an improvement or could be the same.\u201d<\/p>\n
In other lineup news, Nico Sturm will draw in and replace Bobby Brink. Sturm will center the fourth line with Nick and Marcus Foligno.<\/p>\n
The Wild hold a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series with the Stars. With a win tonight, they can clinch their first series win in a decade.<\/p>\n
Hynes said there\u2019s a benefit of having an experienced defenseman like Petry to come in. Petry has played in over 1,000 NHL games but just nine with the Wild since being acquired at the March trade deadline. The 38-year-old said the time being scratched has allowed him to settle in and learn how he fits in the system.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an opportunity for me to step in and make an impact,\u201d Petry said. \u201cWhen you come to a new team, new system, things like that, you\u2019re thinking a little too much in those first couple games. Then you get the system down and coming down the stretch, you\u2019re watching a lot of video, preparing for the games. You\u2019re watching it in the series every day. That gave me a chance to see a lot of things. You learned a lot. So I\u2019m excited for the opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Stars are making significant lineup changes, as well, despite having been adamant that they\u2019ve played well enough at five-on-five.<\/p>\n
With third-line center Arttu Hyry injured, trade-deadline acquisition Michael Bunting will draw into the lineup and play with Jamie Benn and Justin Hryckowian on the third line, coach Glen Gulutzan said. Mavrik Bourque will move up to the top line with Jason Robertson and Wyatt Johnston, and Sam Steel will play on the second line with Matt Duchene and Mikko Rantanen.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t really feel the pressure at all,\u201d said Bunting, who has averaged 19.6 goals over the past five regular seasons but had only one after being acquired by the Stars. \u201cI\u2019ve been waiting for this. I\u2019m more excited than feeling pressure on myself. I\u2019m ready to go here and help this team compete and basically stay alive.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the back end, another deadline acquisition, veteran right-shot defenseman Tyler Myers, will be scratched after a dreadful Game 5. Myers was moved up to the second pairing in the wake of Nils Lundkvist\u2019s facial laceration but struggled mightily, with at least two Minnesota goals attributable to him.<\/p>\n
Veteran Alex Petrovic, who had been a regular in the last two playoff runs, will make his 2026 playoff debut playing alongside Lian Bichsel, with whom he had good chemistry during last year\u2019s run to the Western Conference final.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Minnesota Wild defenseman Jonas Brodin will not play in Game 6 on the team\u2019s first-round series against the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":615660,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[4825,4828,385,99],"class_list":["post-615659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-dallas-stars","tag-minnesota-wild","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=615659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615659\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/615660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=615659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=615659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=615659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}