Dallas Stars right wing Patrick Eaves, back left, celebrates his goal with teammates John Klingberg and Jamie Benn (14) during the third period of Game 1 in a first-round NHL hockey Stanley Cup playoff series against the Minnesota Wild on Thursday, April 14, 2016, in Dallas. The Stars won 4-0. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

Minnesota Wild goalie Devan Dubnyk (40) and defenseman Ryan Suter (20) defend the goal against Dallas Stars center Vernon Fiddler (38) during the first period of Game 1 in a first-round NHL hockey Stanley Cup playoff series. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

The Minnesota Wild warm up before a game against the Dallas Stars in Game One of the Western Conference Quarterfinals during the 2016 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at American Airlines Center on April 14, 2016 in Dallas, Texas. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)

Minnesota Wild defenseman Jared Spurgeon (46) and Dallas Stars left wing Jamie Benn (14) skate for the puck during the first period. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

Minnesota Wild defenseman Matt Dumba (24) is knocked off his skates by Dallas Stars center Mattias Janmark during the first period. (AP Photo/LM Otero)



Wild goalie Devan Dubnyk (40) and defenseman Ryan Suter (20) defend the goal against Dallas center Vernon Fiddler (38) during the first period. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

Minnesota Wild left wing Jason Zucker (16) and Dallas Stars defenseman Johnny Oduya (47) vie for control of the puck during the first period in Dallas. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

Minnesota Wild defenseman Matt Dumba (24) is knocked off his feet by Dallas Stars center Mattias Janmark (13) as Wild defenseman Nate Prosser (39) and Stars center Vernon Fiddler (38) watch during the first period. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

Minnesota Wild goalie Devan Dubnyk looks to gather up the puck next to Dallas Stars attackers Colton Sceviour (22) and Valeri Nichushkin (43) during the first period. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

Dallas Stars defenseman Johnny Oduya (47) skates with the puck against Minnesota Wild right wing Jason Pominville (29) during the second period. (AP Photo/LM Otero)



Minnesota Wild center Mikael Granlund (64) and Dallas Stars defenseman Alex Goligoski (33) vie for control of the puck during the second period. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

Dallas Stars goalie Kari Lehtonen (32) blocks a shot during the second period. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

Patrick Eaves #18 of the Dallas Stars skates the puck against Justin Fontaine #14 of the Minnesota Wild in the first period. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)

Radek Faksa #12 of the Dallas Stars celebrates his goal against the Minnesota Wild in the second period. (Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)

Stephen Johns #28 of the Dallas Stars skates the puck against Mikael Granlund #64 of the Minnesota Wild in the second period. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)



Jamie Benn #14 of the Dallas Stars celebrates his goal with Patrick Sharp #10 against the Minnesota Wild in the third period. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)

Dallas left wing Antoine Roussel (21) reaches for the puck in front of Wild right wing David Jones (12) during the third period. The Stars won 4-0. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

DALLAS — I would like to give the Wild the benefit of the doubt, but they would just airmail the reprieve over the glass, pass it into a teammate’s skates or cough it up to the appreciative Dallas Stars.

Whatever good faith gesture Minnesota wanted to make Thursday night in its Sisyphean quest to take down the NHL’s most dynamic team landed like an anvil at American Airlines Center in Game 1 of its first-round playoff series against the Western Conference king.

Losing the opener on the road was hardly shocking, given the firepower Dallas boasts, the injured game breakers the Wild are missing and the opposite trajectories the franchises are trending. Related Articles Dane Mizutani: Wild GM Bill Guerin finally doing what needs to be done

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No, this was a misfit performance of epic proportion that raises more harsh questions about the Wild’s playing aptitude, their gumption and perhaps their qualifications to be on the same ice as Dallas.

Their lopsided 4-0 loss looked even worse than the four-goal margin. It was more self-destruction than any skill and savvy disadvantage the Stars are poised to exploit in a quick dismissal of their undermanned opponent.

Game 2 is Saturday night, and there might not be enough whiteboard space and video streaming bandwidth for interim coach John Torchetti to will his team into protecting the puck and back into contention in this best-of-seven series.

“Three of the goals we had the puck,” Torchetti lamented. “Bottom line, we’ve got to do a better job managing the puck.”

The indefinite loss of leading scorer and dressing room heartbeat Zach Parise, compounded by Thomas Vanek and Erik Haula’s notable absences, has exposed a woefully overmatched roster that is incapable of upsetting the Stars, let alone competing with them.

Deploying a junior ROTC of playoff naifs and third-liners to battle Dallas’ battalion of young snipers and old warriors is sending lambs to slaughter.

The opening salvo of this initial series between Minnesota’s past and present NHL teams showed the Wild unable to complete simple passes, sustain pressure or make supposedly vulnerable Stars goalie Kari Lehtonen break a sweat.

The Stars needed only five players to combine for nine points, led by Jamie Benn’s goal and two assists.

Defiant goaltender Devan Dubnyk refused to concede.

“We’ve got to understand, we can play with these guys. We can beat these guys,” Dubnyk said. “There’s no reason to think otherwise. We’re going to have to be better than we were tonight, for sure. If there’s anybody in here who thinks we can’t beat them, they shouldn’t.”

Good luck finding anyone buying what Dubnyk is selling, but I’ll give him a pass considering he was the one Wild player who showed up. He stood on his head against 32 shots, and almost had it taken off by a Jason Spezza missile.

With the Twins flailing at the plate and sinking in the standings like a boulder in a pond, the Wild are struggling to play up to pond hockey standards. The next team to win a game in the Twin Cities might be the Vikings in early September.

Good time to spring clean the cabin and install the docks before the Lynx open their WNBA title defense in May.

The Stars used their potent power play to inflict minimum damage against Minnesota, which killed three first-period shorthanded situations to stagger out with a scoreless tie.

The shot board showed a 14-2 Stars advantage, and I’ll hand out a complimentary pack of game notes to the first 10 fans who can identify which Wild players fired them.

How Dubnyk survived the opening 20 minutes will be discussed in medical journals for generations.

Among the quality shots he stopped was Spezza’s blast from inside 20 feet that conked him on the forehead and knocked the netminder on his rear end as the puck ricocheted high off the protective netting.

During one Dallas wave, shattered sticks lay around Dubnyk like shrapnel. His crease was a war zone.

The Wild beat the rap on two careless penalties. Jarrett Stoll threw a puck over the glass for an unforced error. Charlie Coyle was banished for interfering with a defender at the offensive blue line and the Wild on the rush.

Dallas, which boasted the league’s No. 4-ranked power play during the regular season, buzzed the net and kept the Minnesota’s penalty killers chasing ghosts in goalmouth scrambles.

Patrick Sharp clanked a one-timer off the crossbar. But Dubnyk never wavered, and the Wild escaped the first period with only their pride wounded. They managed two harmless shots on Lehtonen, whom Stars coach Lindy Ruff tapped to start Game 1 following four days of intrigue.

Dubnyk did his damnedest to steal Game 1, but he wasn’t the one turning over the puck in the neutral zone to spring the Stars on the attack.

That was Stoll, who was pick-pocketed by Ales Hemsky early in the second period. The puck wound up on Radek Faksa’s stick in the deep slot, and he ripped a shot over Dubnyk for the series’ first goal at 3:53.

Moments later, Hemsky raced in alone on Dubnyk, who aggressively darted out of his crease like a latter-day Gump Worsley to poke-check the puck out of harm’s way.

The nerve-fraying play was the booster shot the Wild craved, a risk-reward payoff by their most engaged player on the ice. And they flung it away, like so many pucks on their blades, as if it were a hissing rattlesnake.

With seven minutes and change left in the second, Spezza dashed down the right wing, faked a slap shot to draw Dubnyk off his shortside post and beat him top shelf with a superstar shot for a 2-0 lead.

Dallas later pounded two more coffin nails to bury the Wild.