Tampa Bay Lightning vs. Dallas Stars Prediction, Preview, and Odds

The Tampa Bay Lightning will go on the road as they head to the American Airlines Center on Saturday afternoon to take on the Dallas Stars in non-conference action. The Lightning (10-9-5, 25 points) are fifth in the Atlantic Division and are riding a three-game losing streak after a 4-2 home loss on Thursday against the Pittsburgh Penguins. This is the first of two games against one another so things are going to be interesting here. 

Lightning Strike

The Tampa Bay Lightning need to continue playing well and racking up wins. They are third in the sport with 82 goals scored and need to continue to be aggressive. Right winger Nikita Kucherov has been leading Tampa Bay as he has posted 39 points (15 goals, 24 assists) and recorded a pair of assists on eight shot attempts in his most recent game against the Pittsburgh Penguins in 24:10 on the ice. They are doing incredibly well on the power play as they are 26-of-79 (32.91 percent) on the power play thus far so they need to continue to put the pressure on the opposing defense.

Andrei Vasilevskiy is expected to be between the pipes for this game for the Tampa Bay Lightning and has been doing decently well to begin his season. Right now, he is 1-2-0 with 2.71 goals allowed per game and a .892 save percentage so far. In his last game against the Penguins, he did well as he allowed three goals on 28 shot attempts. As a team, they are terrible with 85 goals allowed, which is 30th in hockey. The team has been great at killing penalties as they have killed 61-of-72 attempts (84.72 percent) and need to continue clicking in that facet.   

Injury Report for Tampa Bay

Forward Conor Sheary: Upper Body (OUT)

Stars Looking Like Stars

The Dallas Stars have to continue doing well at finding the back of the net if they want to continue adding points to their record. Dallas has been doing decently well offensively as they are 14th in the sport with 71 goals scored. Center Joe Pavelski is leading the way for Dallas as he has posted 21 points (10 goals, 11 assists) and has recorded six points in his last five games. In his last game against the Calgary Flames, he recorded an assist without any shot attempts at 15:47 on the ice. They have been right at league average in terms of power plays as they have scored on 13-of-64 (20.31 percent) so they need to improve with the man advantage if they want to continue winning games.

Jake Oettinger has been doing extremely well in the net and is expected to be the starting goaltender for this matchup. So far this season, he is 9-4-2 with a .916 save percentage and 2.53 goals allowed per game. In his most recent game, he picked up a win against the Jets as he gave up zero goals on 27 shots. The Stars as a whole have been doing well defensively as they are ninth in the sport with 61 goals given up. They have been incredible on penalty kills as they have killed 64-of-72 (88.89 percent) of situations against them. 

Injury Report for Dallas

Defenseman Jerad Rosburg: Undisclosed (OUT)

Best Bets

Full-Game Side Bet

Rating:

These are two very solid teams so the differences are going to be small here. When looking at the faceoff win percentage this season, the Stars are seventh with a 52.6 faceoff win percentage while the Lightning are 10th with a 51.7 faceoff win percentage. The ability to score shows a bit of a difference as in the previous three games, Tampa Bay is allowing 1.33 goals per game while Dallas is giving up 3.0 goals per game in that span. The favorite has won 10 of the previous 13 games against one another so go with the Dallas Stars to win at home here. 

Prediction: Dallas Stars -146

Full-Game Total Pick

Rating:

These defenses have been doing incredibly well on the penalty kill as Dallas is third in the league with an 88.9 kill percentage while Tampa Bay is ninth in the league with an 84.7 kill percentage so far. When diving into the previous five games, both the  Stars and Lightning are allowing 3.2 goals per game. The under has hit in five of the last seven games between these teams in Dallas so go with UNDER 6.5 GOALS in this game. 

Prediction: Under 6.5

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