Dallas Stars at Minnesota Wild
Dallas needs to go on a tear in a hurry if they want to get back in the Western Conference playoff race and today could be the start of such a stretch with a pretty lax schedule between now and the Olympic break. The fact that they’ve gone 1-7 to start 2014 and though the offense has struggled, they are averaging nearly 2.5 goals/game over their terrible stretch (19 goals in eight games) so they just need their defense to right itself a bit. That can certainly happen against a punch-less Minnesota team that has averaged fewer than 25 shots on goal over their last eight games.
Speaking of Minnesota, despite their inability to sustain offensive pressure lately, they have managed to score exactly 2.5 goals per game over their last four games despite missing probably their two most important forwards in Mikko Koivu and Zach Parise. Part of their ability to stay in games has been a return to stifling defense as the Wild have allowed fewer than 24 shots against on average over those four games.
This is the first game of a home-and-home between these two teams and is the first game between these two teams since the second week of the season.
I anticipate a close game tonight but I’m not sure which team comes out on top. For that reason, I’ll be staying away from both goalies but picking away at the skaters from both sides (though, mostly value plays).
|
Top RW Value |
Top LW Value |
Top C Value |
Top D Value |
Bargain Bin |
|
(DAL) $7800 |
Antoine Roussel $6250 |
(DAL) $7050 |
Jonas Brodin |
Mikael Granlund $6950 |
