Daniel Wettstein previews Game 2 of the NHL Second Round series between the Colorado Avalanche and Dallas Stars and shares his best bets.
The Dallas Stars were able to ride the tide of momentum they created in their 7-goal series clinching win against the Calgary Flames into a Game 1 win against the Colorado Avalanche. The Avalanche came out flat and made my first six picks go 2-4. The biggest positive I can take from this loss for the Av’s is that this was more of the Av’s beating themselves, than the Stars winning it.
I know many will point to 5 goals by the Stars to counter my point, I will point out 2 of those goals were on a break-away against a goalie that was an injury replacement after the starter blew out his knee in the 2nd period, another on a 2-1 break-away. A third was on a 1-1 situation created by Zadorav going for the big hit instead of the puck, leaving a wide-open lane to the net for the 5th and final goal of the contest by the Stars.
Unlike in the Coyotes where the Avalanche flexed their defensive and goalkeeping muscle by only giving up 2 goals in the final 2 games. This game showed their youth and tendency to go for the big play when the better option was to just go safe. Especially after you lose your starting goalie. You hate to knock hustle, but this was the rare case where overreach cost you dearly.
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Another positive is that Pavel Francouz replaced Philipp Grubauer at 23:06 into the contest, and the ‘tending took a sharp uptick (Numbers courtesy of Yahoo! Sports):
| Goaltenders | GA | SA | SV | SV% | TOI |
| Pavel Francouz | 2 | 20 | 18 | .900 | 33:30 |
| Philipp Grubauer | 3 | 10 | 7 | .700 | 23:06 |
Those 2 goals that Pavel allowed, that proved the difference in the contest, were the first 2 goals he has allowed in the bubble, period. And again, this was the first one about 7 mins. after he entered cold off the bench:
Time after time Dallas caught the Avalanche sleeping on the defensive end to slide a scorer behind them to create a break-away opportunity. If it wasn’t a break-away or worse, it was them capatilizing on second chances due to Avalanche defenders playing soft around their net. Sounds a lot like their Game 3 loss to the Arizona Coyotes.
Look for the Avalanche to come out in Game 2 on Monday in a similar fashion as they did in Game 4 against those Yotes. I am not going to promise 7 goals by the Avalanche, but I will say it is possible. The Avalanche, and Grubauer in particular made the 2nd best Defense, and a goalkeeper many will put at the top of the league, look silly in their 3 scoring plays.
All of these is backed up by the lines as they barely moved from Game 1, Moneyline is courtesy of DraftKings Sportsbook:
As I have said before, these type of odds for Mack and Kadri to simply score a goal I will take anyday:
Click here to bet on MacKinnon (+143) or Kadri (+188) to score a goal at DraftKings.
I am taking the over as well, and the best line I found from FOXBet Sportsbook made it easy:
FOXBet Sportsbook also had an easy line to take on the 60-Minute Game Result as well:
So basically look for more of the same from these squads with a high-paced, high-scoring thriller with the Av’s coming out as the victor in what looks to be a tough and hard fought series I still see ending in 5 after this smelling-salts like wake-up call in Game 1.
