St. Louis Blues vs Dallas Stars - Odds and Predictions

Where: American Airlines Center – Dallas, TX.

When: Friday, February 21, 8:30 PM EST

How (TV/Radio): FSW+, Fox Sports Midwest | WFAN

St. Louis Blues (Away)

Head Coach: Craig Berube{All-Time 146-94-44 STL}

Currently sitting second in the Central Division, the defending Stanley Cup champion St. Louis Blues are trying to climb out of a rough spot. Just 3-5-2 over their last ten, the Blues had a strong performance in their last game, where they shutout the New Jersey Devils with a final score of 3-0.

Offense

They may be down, but they’re not out. Let’s face it, the Blues have been one of the best teams in the entire NHL since the start of last January. Don’t expect their recent woes to last.

St. Louis currently has the 14th-most goals scored this season with 139 coming at even strength. They rank in the bottom-ten in shots but they make the most of their scoring chances as the Blues have the 11th-highest shooting percentage this season at 10.3 percent.

With 43 power-play goals this season, the Blues have the league’s 4th-highest power-play percentage, sitting with a 24.71 percent at the time of writing. But, with Dallas boasting crafty like Tyler Seguin, the Blues will have to watch out on the power play as they have already allowed six shorthanded goals against this year.

Another thing to note for this game is the play of St. Louis on the road. Most teams find much of their success in their home arena and St. Louis is no different. Their road record this season, although above-500, is 14-11-5.

Defense

The biggest issue to point out is penalties. The Blues will need to play smart and stay out of the penalty box as much as they can. So far this season the team is averaging six minutes in penalties per game. Not much, but they can’t seem to kill them off, as proven by their 79.4 percent penalty kill – ranking 18th in the NHL.

They do play tight defensively though, and the Blues have allowed just 1,791 shots against this season – that’s the ninth-lowest shots against total in the league. Their goaltending tandem has a combined .906 save percentage – putting them in 13th.

Goaltending

In a strange twist, in such an important game, the Blues are expected to start backup goalie Jake Allen. Allen is 8-6-3 this season with a 2.36 goals-against average and a .922 save percentage. He has one shutout this season.

Dallas Stars (Home)

Head Coach: David Quinn{All-Time 57-58-18 NYR}

The Stars have had a strong last ten games, going 7-1-2 and claiming their place ahead of the Blues atop the Central division. Dallas is coming off of a strong 3-2 victory over the Arizona Coyotes.

Offense

The first thing anyone will notice about this team that boasts the likes of Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn is that they haven’t lived up to the reputation of being a high-scoring team. At the time of writing, the Stars rank 25th in the league for goals scored with only 159 and only 118 at even strength.

Their offense does find a way to pick up when they are given the man-advantage. The Dallas Stars power-play unit ranks 12th in the NHL and has been picking up a lot of steam lately. They have 36 power-play goals this season.

They will need to get more shots on net, however, to beat a team like St. Louis. The Stars rank 22nd in shots on net and have a shooting percentage of 8.8 percent, ranking them 23rd.

The Stars will have a, albeit slight advantage over St. Louis in the faceoff circle. Dallas’s faceoff percentage is the fourth-best in the league. They have a 52.2 percent.

Defense

These two teams are almost mirror-images of each other when it comes to the defensive end of things. Like the Blues, the Stars are in the league’s top-ten for fewest goals allowed, ranking third – allowing just 149 goals against this season.

They rank slightly higher than the Blues when it comes to penalty killing as well. The Stars sit 13th with an 81.18 percent and they’ve also scored five shorthanded goals. This team also takes significantly fewer penalties than the Blues.

They do, however, allow more shots on goal. They allow an average of 32 shots on net per game, which ranks them 20th in that category. Luckily for the Stars, they have one of the best goalies in the league in their crease.

Goaltending

Dallas are expected to have top-caliber goaltender Ben Bishop in goal for the team Friday night against the Blues. This season, Bishop has gone 21-12-4. He has a GAA of 2.37 and a .925 save percentage. He has two shutouts this season and is likely to once again be a finalist for the Vezina award.

Last Head-to-Head

The last game between these two came just weeks ago on February 8. In what was a hard-fought battle, it was the Dallas Stars that came away with the victory, beating the Blues by a final score of 3-2.

The Central Division throne! St. Louis has spent much of this season atop the division while Dallas started the season weakly. But now here we are, and these two teams sit tied with 76 points this season. Dallas has two more regulation wins than the Blues, giving them the slight edge. The team that wins this game will pull a clear two points ahead of the other in the standings. With that said, this division is still anyone’s claim as the Colorado Avalanche sit just one point back of both these teams.

Questions to Answer

How will Jake Allen hold up? Although Dallas hasn’t lived up to their potential offensively this season, it’s still peculiar that the Blues wouldn’t start the star Jordan Binnington in such a close, crucial matchup.

The Blues have made things work without star forward Vladimir Tarasenko but they have now been without defenseman Jay Bouwmeester due to his scary chest palpitation incident. The Blues haven’t been playing their best hockey since. How will they handle an almost completely healthy Dallas team?

Can the Blues play a more disciplined game against the Stars? The Blues average roughly 12 minutes of penalty time per game. That is far too much time in the box as Dallas has a power play that ranks within the league’s top-ten.

St. Louis Blues Injury Report

D Jay Bouwmeester – DL (chest)

F Vladimir Tarasenko – DL (shoulder)

F Erik Foley – IR/NR (concussion)

Dallas Stars Injury Report

F Martin Hanzal – DL (back)

F Justin Dowling – DL (undisclosed)

St. Louis Blues vs Dallas Stars Odds

The latest odds for St. Louis vs Dallas are provided by DraftKings Sportsbook, and 888Sport NJ.