After a big win in the opener, Wild coach wants even more in Game 2

DALLAS – Coming off the biggest series-opening win in the 25-year history of the Minnesota Wild, their coach wants even more than the 6-1 drubbing the visitors laid on the Dallas Stars in Game 1.

Meeting with the media on Sunday, which was a day off for the team, John Hynes was quick to point out they his team has won one game, not a series and not a trophy, and they will need to get even better from here.

“We prepped for a few days to play Game 1 and we played Game 1 and we got the result we wanted, but we want to continue to get better as the series goes on,” Hynes said. “As we all know, I think it’s important that you stay focused, you don’t get too high after a win, you don’t get too low after a loss. It’s a series.”

American Airlines Center, the site of this series’ first two games, is where Brock Faber made his playoff debut three years ago in a win. On Saturday in the 2026 opener he played a superlative game according to the advanced statistics, but those numbers and algorithms were unnecessary for anyone who watched Faber with the naked eye, and saw a defenseman who – partnered with headliner Quinn Hughes – is emerging into his own kind of stardom.

“I’ve been playing with Brock for 45 games, maybe a little bit more now, and like I’ve been saying, the more we play together the more we’re going to grow together,” said Hughes, who jumped back into the Game 1 lineup after not skating for a week. “And he can pick my brain and he knows where I want the puck and I know where he wants the puck, and just kind of be able to read off each other without having to say anything.”

For Faber, there’s an acknowledgement that they will face a talented and desperate Stars team on Monday night in Game 2, but also an embrace of the coach’s challenge to be even better as the Wild seek to take a 2-0 series lead for the first time in franchise history.

“We played a good game. There’s things we can improve on, right?” Faber said. “A couple bounces don’t go our way, who knows. I thought we deserved to win that game, but at the end of the day, you’ve got to put it in the past.”

Faber has been with the Wild for three full seasons. Hynes, slightly less than that. Unlike an army of Wild fans that sometimes expects the worst, the coach doesn’t have the long-ago memories of two previous playoff series losses to Dallas. He enters Game 2 looking forward, and wanting more.

“It’s this year. It’s our team. It’s a new year. We’re a different team,” Hynes said, heaping praise on the Stars for their talent, which the Wild don’t look past. “We’re not satisfied with winning one game. The objective is to win a series, and last night’s done. It’s over. We’re taking lessons out of it, and we’re gonna be a better team tomorrow.”