The Boston Bruins visit the Dallas Stars on Sunday afternoon in a game that can be seen on NBC. Both teams are battling for a playoff spot in their respective conferences with Boston very much in the race in the Eastern Conference, while the Stars are already in a must-win situation in the Western Conference. This series between Boston and Dallas has been a road team series, as the road team has won the last six meetings.
This war on the ice will go down Sunday, February 26, 2017 at 12:30 p.m. ET at American Airlines Center. The game will be televised live on NBC.
We'll have NHL odds at BookMaker.eu available for this and every game on the NHL Sunday schedule.
Odds Analysis
This is the final game of a four-game road trip for Boston that started out West with games against the Sharks, Ducks and Kings. This is not a bad spot for Boston as they have had two days off since playing the Kings on Thursday. The Bruins were 15-17 in their first 32 road games with 14 games going over the total, 15 going under with 3 pushes.
The Stars are playing the second game off their bye which should be a good spot, as teams have struggled in the first game back from the bye but much better in the second game. The Stars were 16-15 in their first 31 home games with 17 games going over the total and 14 going under.
Special Teams
Boston puts a lot of shots on goal but they don’t score that often. They are first in shots per game but just 17th in goals per game at 2.7 per contest. The Bruins are 14th on the power play at 19.5%. They are excellent in penalty killing as they rank 1st in the league at 86.6%. The Bruins are 12th in goals against at 2.6 per contest.
The Stars are just 18th in the league on the power play at 18%. They are scoring 2.8 goals per game at 14th in the league. The Stars are last in the league in penalty killing at 73% and they are next to last in the league in goals allowed at 3.2 per contest.
Goalie Report
The Bruins start Tuukka Rask in almost every game. He is 28-18 with a 2.28 goals against average. The backup is Anton Khudobin who is 2-6 with a 3.05 goals against average. The Bruins need Khudobin to prove he can be a quality backup or Boston will need to trade for a backup goaltender before next week’s trading deadline.
The Stars have two subpar goaltenders in Kari Lehtonen and Antti Niemi. Lehtonen is 13-24 with a 2.88 goals against average while Niemi is 10-13 with a 3.19 goals against average. If the Stars are still in contention next week they may look to trade for a goaltender who could give them a boost down the stretch.
Free NHL Picks
This series has been easy to predict, but unorthodox, as the road team wins. The road team has won the last six games in this series. The home team has not won a game in this series since 2011. Four of the last five in the series have gone over the total. The Bruins have won the last three in Dallas with three of the last four going over the total.
The Stars badly need to win this game but they simply are not a good team right now. They do have the advantage of playing the second game after the bye so they should come out with a big effort but I simply don’t trust Dallas to play defense. I think the better play in this game is to bet the over as the trends point to a high scoring game and Dallas is a team that goes over the total at home.
NHL Odds: Bruins 4, Stars 3
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