Analysis: Dallas - Tampa Bay, odds and tips

We are in for an interesting show at American Airlines Center on Friday night. Dallas Stars will host Tampa Bay Lightning at this arena.

Classification and team condition:
Dallas and Tampa are in the places beyond “the best eight” in their respective conferences. Stars are closer to play-off (10th place), they lose only 1 point to Minnesota. Tampa (40 points) is in the last place in the Eastern Conference, and it loses 10 points to the eighth team – Capitals.

Potential and team situation:
Dallas and Tampa Bay have a lot in common. If to speak about historical aspect then both teams have only once won the Stanley Cup. Both can be called the biggest disappointments of this season and what is even worse the last months Stars’ and Lightning’s performances were desperately weak. As far as the guests can be justified because of the difficult situation in the lineup, so far the game of the strong lineup of Glen Gulutzan’s team has negatively surprised. There is something similar between the managers of “Stars” and “Lightnings” – both are former famous hockey players, Joe Nieuwendyk and Steve Yzerman.
Dallas has been disappointing with its game especially at home where it has an average balance (13-11). Two previous matches against Colorado and Detroit ended up with their defeat. What is worse Stars have for some time lost Ribeiro and Larsen. That’s nothing compared to the guests’ problems. Their defense line has fallen apart since the Scandinavian trio Bergeron – Hedman – Ohlund won’t come out to the ice in the nearest time. Injuries of the rest of the players don’t seem so serious but will still influence the coach’s decision.

History of meetings:
Dallas won 4 out of 5 previous home matches against TBL – 2:4, 4:3, 4:3, 5:1, 4:3. What is interesting 9 out of 10 previous matches between these teams ended up with the variant of over 5.5.

Tips and justification:
There is a dilemma which is whether to bet on Dallas or on the variant of over 5.5. In the end we decided to bet on “over”, taking into consideration the losses in the defense of Tampa Bay. The power of a defeat of this team is in the hands of Sun-Lui and Stemkos but on the other hand “Lightnings’” defense is desperate. We await a spectacular match with huge quantity of scoring possibilities near the gates of both teams.