Hockey, maybe more than any other sport, embraces the bunker mentality.

They will fight you if you talk too much smack.

They will fight you if you put a clean hit on one of their teammates.

They will fight you if you so much as look at their goalie.

So it's no surprise that these guys protect injury information with their lives. They fear you're going to target the injury, they fear you're going to change your game plan, they want to keep you guessing. It's all a part of the sanctity of "The Room," where anyone on the outside is the enemy.

Tyler Seguin is injured. We sort of know what the injury is, but we're not really exactly sure. The Stars want it that way. Seguin suffered a partial cut of the Achilles tendon March 17, had surgery to stitch that up, and then rested 11 games. He returned to play in Game 2 against Minnesota, sustained a new injury, and has not skated since.

Maybe it's his calf, maybe it's still his Achilles. Asked Wednesday if he could help the fans out a little, Stars general manager Jim Nill clarified at least what Seguin isn't doing.

"He can't skate yet, I can say that," Nill said. "He's day to day, and once he gets on the ice, it's probably four to five days from there."

As you rush to your Don Cherry's Rock 'em Sock 'em calendar and do the math, you figure that means Seguin will miss the first two games of the series with the Blues. In your heart, you know it means he will probably miss more than that.

Look, we're not medical experts and the Stars are not giving us much to speculate on, but it sure seems that Seguin is not going to be an option anytime soon. That being said, the bunker mentality can help here, as well. The Stars know they have to try to win without the fourth leading scorer in the NHL over the past three seasons. They know they have to take on different roles, and they did just that in the first round.

Jamie Benn stepped up and led the NHL in scoring with 10 points (four goals, six assists) in six games, while Jason Spezza was third with nine (four goals, five assists). Patrick Sharp added three goals. If the Stars have depth in any area, it's definitely in scoring.

Nill said the entire team responded positively to the loss of Seguin. Dallas went 8-2-0 down the stretch and then won the first round series. With Seguin out, they are 11-4-0.

"I have to give a lot of credit to our team for stepping up," Nill said. "From the top player all the way through, they have responded to Tyler's injury and we have played some of our best hockey after that. I think when you look at the pressure of fighting for the division championship and having to do that without one of your best players, it's a great accomplishment to finish first."

Spezza said it's simply a hockey mindset to go "next man up" when a team suffers a significant loss.

"When you lose a guy of Seguin's caliber, it becomes kind of imperative that everybody kind of helps and gets on board and kind of picks up the slack," Spezza said. "We've had different guys step up different nights, and that's kind of the tale of how you have to have success in the playoffs."

But there are many who will pick the Blues in this series because of Seguin's absence. If the Stars are going to need to outscore St. Louis, then all hands need to be on deck, right?

Nill said there's a reason the team is confident even without Seguin. In the final stretch, Dallas won at San Jose, at Los Angeles and lost a 3-1 game at Anaheim. It was a test of whether the Stars could play grind-it-out hockey.

"I look at the LA game, and we were clearly the better team, they had to adjust to us," Nill said. "With what we have been through, we feel very good about facing challenges. We've been challenged this year, and we've responded."

And, the bunker mentality has been a key part of that.

Big shots

Here are the top five scorers in the NHL over the past three seasons. The Stars have two in this group, but are missing Tyler Seguin with a lower body injury.

Twitter: @MikeHeika