We only recently passed the 50th anniversary of a stunning upset of Muhammad Ali, a night when a former Joe Frazier sparring partner named Ken Norton broke the champion’s jaw — possibly as early as the second round — to score a major upset in a 12-round decision.
I bring this up not because the Minnesota Wild are a long shot against the Dallas Stars but because sometimes bad things can happen to you very quickly even when you feel ready to either win a championship or perform like a champ. In this case, in a 3-2 double overtime victory for the visitors in a game that ended early Tuesday, the Stars lost a game, home-ice advantage and Joe Pavelski.
That’s a big package. This Dallas team scored 108 points in the regular season, the most for the franchise since 2016 and with individuals setting records (or achieving 1,000-point milestones in the case of Pavelski), hopes were high for a deep postseason run.
