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Colorado Avalanche vs. Dallas Stars – 8/22/20 NHL Pick, Odds, and Prediction

Dallas Stars at Colorado Avalanche 8/22/20: NHL Hockey free preview, analysis, prediction, odds and pick against the spread.
2020-08-22 20:00:00 EDT

The Dallas Stars and Colorado Avalanche meet Saturday in game one of the NHL West Second Round at the Rogers Place.  

The Dallas Stars are coming off a six-game series victory over the Calgary Flames. The Dallas Stars are averaging 2.78 goals per game and are scoring on 20 percent of their power play opportunities. Joe Pavelski leads Dallas with six goals, Miro Heiskanen has nine assists and Jamie Benn has 24 shots on goal. Defensively, the Dallas Stars are allowing three goals per game and are killing 76.7 percent of their opponents power plays. Ben Bishop has given up eight goals on 58 shots faced and Anton Khudobin has allowed 18 goals on 221 shots.

The Colorado Avalanche are coming off a five-game series victory over the Arizona Coyotes. The Colorado Avalanche are averaging 3.88 goals per game and are scoring on 30.6 percent of their power play opportunities. Nazem Kadri leads Colorado with six goals, Nathan MacKinnon has nine assists and Mikko Rantanen has 24 shots on goal. Defensively, the Colorado Avalanche are allowing 1.63 goals per game and are killing 88 percent of their opponents power plays. Philipp Grubauer has allowed nine goals on 143 shots faced and Pavel Francouz has allowed two goals on 48 shots.

Will update with trends once they’re released.

I wasn’t all that high on the Dallas Stars coming into the postseason given their struggles heading into the bubble, but the offense has picked up and Khudobin has done a better job of showing up in net, even if the defense could be better overall. The Colorado Avalanche absolutely destroyed the Coyotes in the last two games, outscoring them 14-2, and they’re a tough team to bet against given their current form. The Avalanche also beat the Stars 4-0 in a round robin game a couple of weeks ago. There’s no doubt the Avs should be favored in this series and this opening game. However, the Stars did win all four meetings against the Avalanche in the regular season and they’re a dangerous team if they can build on their recent performances against the Flames.

I’ll take a stab with the Stars and the plus money in this opening game.

Randy Chambers's Free Pick: Dallas Stars +145

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Randy Chambers

Randy has covered sports betting since 2014 and writes about everything from NFL to WNBA. Follow Randy Chambers on Twitter.

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