Stars head coach had a surprising reaction to Marcus Foligno's controversial hit in Game 2

Things didn't go as planned for the Minnesota Wild in Game 2 of their series against the Dallas Stars. Minnesota lost 4-2, with plenty of things going just wrong enough to tip the scales, one of which was Marcus Foligno having a particularly tough night in every sense.

Foligno is part of Minnesota's heaviest line of hitters, and the physicality getting ratcheted up in Game 2 brought out the best and worst of the Wild's alternate captain. His most controversial moment came as the second period was ending, when Foligno got tangled up with Thomas Harley and appeared to suplex him into the ice.

Replay both sort of absolved Foligno of the WWE allegations but also didn't do him a ton of favors in terms of riling up fans who thought the play was dirty. The NHL didn't think too much of it, as Foligno was assessed a major penalty that was reviewed and reduced to a double minor.

The play resulted in one of five power plays Dallas was awarded in Game 2, but didn't end up costing Minnesota a goal. It did, however, fire the Stars up and it was momentum they rode to an eventual 4-2 win that ties the series as it heads back to St. Paul.

Stars head coach sort of defends Marcus Foligno's controversial hit on Thomas Harley

More than just having an impact on Game 2, the hit by Foligno established that this series is going to get even more physical than we all expected, and has painted him as an early villain in the eyes of fans in Dallas and around the NHL.

One person not playing into the narrative, however, is Stars head coach Glen Gutuzlan.

After the game Gulutzan was asked about the hit and the penalties that followed, but took a route that might surprise Wild fans. Rather than try to bury Foligno -- or stoke suspension coals like some fans were doing on social media -- Gulutzan brushed it off as part of what happens in a series as physical as this one is shaping up to be.

“It was interference on Harls for sure, and then it was a headlock into the turnbuckle. But you know what? That’s probably the right call. They’ve got a lot of veteran guys there with good character. It’s just a hard-fought series," Gulutzan said. "Sure, he had him in a headlock, and I don’t think, other than that, it was malicious. It’s playoff hockey. The biggest thing for me is how Harls has stepped up in the physicality department and how solid he’s been, too."

It could have been easy for Gutuzlan to have played into the narrative and thumbed the scales of public opinion and weaponize the whole moment. Instead, he gave us something that is almost even more frustrating in that Wild fans have to agree with a rival coach as he sort of comes to the defense of Foligno.

Although, a deeper reading of this is that Gutulzan is playing a little 4D chess here. By not coming out against the hit as hard as Stars fans have, he's normalizing this level of physicality and essentially saying that if the Wild want to do this, then they can't be upset when Dallas dishes it right back.

It's another reminder that as much as this series will be decided on the ice, the puppet strings are being pulled just on the other side of the boards as well.

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