With the first Wild Card all but wrapped up, Dallas is erring on the side of caution. Plus, pretty much every game last night had playoff implications, the Women’s World Championship began yesterday, and more.

The Dallas Stars just need a single point in their last two games in order to secure the first Wild Card spot. So as a precaution, the Stars are resting several players — Jamie Benn, Mats Zuccarello, Roman Polak, and Ben Bishop — tonight as they take on the Chicago Blackhawks.

Bishop is to be expected, given his recent injury, though fans might be concerned to hear Zuccarello listed. But no worries — Zuccarello is a-okay.

“Just maintenance,” [head coach Jim] Montgomery said. “He felt great, and he felt his timing was really good. He doesn’t know if he even needs to play Saturday to be ready for playoffs. There’s no concern injury-wise or health-wise. He’ll be fine for playoffs.”

Meanwhile Tyler Seguin, Miro Heiskanen, and Esa Lindell will play both tonight and tomorrow against the Minnesota Wild. That would make all three members of this year’s 82-Games Club:

“I think that is a tremendous feather in their cap to be able to say you withstood the rigors of an NHL season and have helped us in all 82 games,” Montgomery said. “And the three players we are talking about are key cogs in our team.”

You can read more from Mark Stepneski here.

Stars Stories

According to the stats, Ben Bishop is the best goaltender in the NHL this year. But that doesn’t mean he’s the favorite to win the Vezina:

It’s okay everyone; you can believe in Dallas as potential dark horse Stanley Cup candidate.

Playoff Primer

Oh jeez, where to begin...

Today, the Columbus Blue Jackets can clinch the final spot in the East with a win over the New York Rangers, and the Stars can — as already mentioned — lock into the first Wild Card by getting a point against Chicago. The Central won’t be decided until Saturday, nor will the seeding of the Metropolitan teams besides Washington.

Anyways, here are the Western Conference standings. Saturday will be fun...

Around the League

Here’s you’re daily reminder that the Stanley Cup playoffs are awesome, even when we don’t think they will be:

The NHL season ends tomorrow, which means we should be seeing a good number of head coach firings on Sunday:

The 2019 IIHF Women’s World Championship began yesterday, and Team USA kicked off their tournament with a bang:

Finally, you know about Miro Heiskanen and Rasmus Dahlin, but what about some of the other top rookie defensemen this year?