Dallas Stars at Edmonton Oilers (-150, 6)
Series tied at 1
3 p.m. ET
The big story coming out of Game Two is the injury to the Stars’ number one center, Roope Hintz, who took a nasty slash from Darnell Nurse in the late stages of Game Two and needed help off the ice. Nurse received only a two-minute minor for slashing, angering Dallas Stars coach Pete DeBoer, who said, “Does anyone think if Connor McDavid was carried off the ice like that, it wouldn’t be a five-minute major?” Hintz’s status for Game Three remains unclear.
Dallas is the only team in the playoffs yet to lose consecutive games, and Sunday will be the first time in the playoffs the Stars will be playing a road game off a loss. Dallas is 2-4 on the road (7-2 at home) in the playoffs and has been outscored 22-9. In their six losses in this year’s playoffs, the Stars were outscored 27-5 and shut out four times. Four of their previous five losses have had a combined six goals or more, and three of those have had seven goals or more. League-wide, we have had six shoutouts in this year’s playoff, and five times the full game has cashed.
After giving up five goals on 27 shots in Game One of the series, Stuart Skinner bounced back, stopping all 25 shots in Game Two for his third shutout of the playoffs. Skinner has three wins in the playoffs, and he has blanked the opposition in each victory. He has given up 20 goals in his four losses (5,4,5,6 goals). Edmonton has been the better team at full and even strength for five of the six periods of this series. Now the series shifts back to Oil Country, where Edmonton is (4-1) in the playoffs, with four of the five games having a combined seven goals or more.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had a goal and an assist for the second consecutive game and now has 13 points (five goals, eight assists) in 13 games. His five goals are tied with Evan Bouchard and Corey Perry for the team lead. For just the second time in 11 games, “The Nuge” was held to under two shots on goal. I will take another crack at his shots on goal prop, but I will tie it to Mikael Granlund’s shots prop. Granlund has gone Over 1.5 shots on goal in eight of his last 10 games.
NHL Predictions:
Mikael Granlund Over 1.5 shots on goal (-125) – 1 unit
Mikael Granlund Over 2.5 shots on goal (+255) – .25 units
Mikael Granlund anytime goal (+400) – .10 units
Mikael Granlund/Ryan Nugent-Hopkins each Over 1.5 shots on goal (+163) – .50 units
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins anytime goal (+260) – .15 units
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins Over ½ assist (+140) – .15 units
Sam Steel anytime goal (+1400) – .10 units
Miro Heiskanen Over ½ assist (+136) – .10 units
Edmonton Oilers -1.5 goals (+164) – .25 units
Dallas Stars -1.5 goals (+280) – .25 units
Dallas Stars/Edmonton Oilers Over 6 (-120) – .50 units
