Free NHL Betting Picks – Dallas Stars (+105) vs. Tampa Bay Lightning (-125)
by Ringo Dalewood
Tuesday, February 27th --- St. Pete Times Forum, Tampa --- 7:30pm
The Stars’ (37-21-3) long-shot season continues as they battle injuries while struggling to hold on to their fifth-place ranking in the West. Playoff-bound, the Stars need some big boosts from their young scorers as they visit Tampa (36-25-3) to take on the Bolts. Though Lightning won the last matchup in late January by a 6-3 score.
Dallas just finished a rough patch of schedule in the West, facing five playoff-bound teams in their last five games. They won three of those five, including wins over San Jose. In those wins, they showed an ability to score and held their opponents to an average of 1.8 goals against.
The Lightning are coming off a convincing win over the Penguins, which they needed after recording losses to Boston in the past week. Defense has been porous for the Lightning, but the incoming acquisition of enforcer Shane O’Brien on the blue-line should help bolster that unit. O’Brien has over 140 PIM’s on the season, and makes his debut on Tuesday.
The Stars second-ranked defense will have their hands full taking on Martin St. Louis and Vincent Lecavalier, two of the leagues top scorers. But Dallas has one of the better goaltenders in net, and the Stars will match their top blue-line unit of Philippe Boucher and Sergei Zubov to shut down the dynamic Tampa duo.
The Stars are one of the best teams at peppering the goalie, meaning they got a ton of shots off per game. This is important going against Johan Holmqvist, who gives up too many rebounds for his own good. The Stars will need to crash the net to scoreon the Lightning.
Look for a steady game of defensive hockey from the Stars, as they wait patiently for their chances. The Lightning are a strong team, which is why they are favored at home, but the underdog Stars are simply too good on the road and come from the stronger conference. On Tuesday night, they will show one of the East’s best why the West is better.
Dallas – 3
Tampa – 2
Result: Stars 2 Lightning 1
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