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Boxing NHL Playoffs Monday Best Bet: 1st Round of the Post Season
Dallas Stars vs Minnesota Wild Best Bet: Monday, April 17th
The battle for the Stanley Cup is officially underway with four games being played on Monday and our resident pucks expert Ej Garr is covering the first-round series between the Stars / Wild from the Western Conference.
The Stars fell one point shy of winning the Central Division title and as a result, it dropped them to 4th in the playoff seedings as they’ll face the 6-seeded Wild to kick off the post-season. Let’s see what Ej has to offer for this first game of the series that starts in Texas on Monday night!
In this article:
Dallas Stars vs Minnesota Wild Preview
April 18, 02:37 (UK time)
The Colorado Avalanche stole the Central Division title from the Dallas Stars on the final day of the regular season. It bounded Dallas back to a 4-seed in the Western Conference table for the post-season. Let’s be honest and say that none of it matters because all eight of the teams from each conference can win any game, on any night, and there will be a few surprises among any of these series.
That didn’t stop Dallas from riding a ton of momentum into the playoffs carrying a 6-game win streak while having won 8 of their last 9 games to end the regular season. Jake Oettinger is expected to be between the pipes for Dallas, and he was playing as if beach balls were in his face down the stretch of the regular season. Oettinger didn’t allow more than 1 goal in any of his last four starts that all turned into wins for the Stars.
The Stars took a pair of 4 – 1 regular season wins and won 2 out of 3 games in the series between these two teams, although Minnesota nabbed a 2 – 1 shootout win when they last met in February.
Jason Robertson fell four goals shy of being a 50-goal scorer this year, although for me the most impressive team stat came from Miro Heiskanen. The defenseman tallied 62 assists this year accounting for most of his 73 points, although he hasn’t scored a goal in the last 11 games he still dished out 12 dimes over that period.
The Wild are limping into the post-season having lost 5 of their last 7 games while trying to shake off a modest 2-game skid. Marc Andre Fleury will take part in yet another NHL post-season, as he has been a participant in the playoffs 16 times over his stellar career. Only he, Martin Brodeur, and Patty Roy have accumulated 500 wins between the pipes in the NHL, and his three Stanely Cup wins will give Minnesota some confidence that he knows how to play big when the lights are the brightest.
The big problem for Fleury is he folded like a lawn chair going 0 – 3 in his final three starts of the irregular season, and that was a contributing factor to why Minnesota fell to a 6-seed when they were in the fight with Colorado and Dallas to win the Central Division crown.
Dallas Stars vs Minnesota Wild Best Bet
I have zero confidence in Fleury to pick up the pieces from his poor finish to the regular season, and despite his playoff record, I have Dallas taking this series. The line setters see it the same way placing Dallas as the favourites to advance to the next round, but the juice on that will keep me away from that bet. I see a 4 – 2 Dallas win in Game 1 of the series, and Pinnacle has left us a plus-money offer for the Over 5.5!
- Selection: Over 5,5
- Best odds: 2.01 IPinnacle)
- Stakes 4/10
Odds as of 9:00 am April 17, 2023. Odds may now differ.
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