Kraken vs Stars Betting Preview: Dallas Favored to Lead Series for First Time

Road Team Looks for Upper Hand Once Again in Seattle-Dallas Playoff Series

High-Scoring Series Returns to Dallas for Pivotal Game 5 on Thursday

The road team has made itself right at home with a pair of wins so far in the Dallas vs Seattle series. When looking at the Kraken vs Stars betting preview, the Seattle Kraken hopes that continues after squandering a chance to go up 3-1 thanks to a disastrous second period the last time out.

Dallas scored four times in the second period with Max Domi leading the way with a goal and an assist as the Stars evened the series with a 6-3 win. The game featured just 44 shots on goal. Seattle was able to turn 21 takeaways into only 19 shots.

Seattle goalie Philipp Grubauer was chased in the last game after playing the first two periods.

Jared McCann, a 40-goal scorer during the NHL regular season, returned for Game 4. However, he was eighth among the forwards in ice time and did not register a point. Forward Daniel Sprong (upper body) is questionable in Game 5 for Seattle. Fellow forwards Andre Burakovsky, Joonas Donskoi and John Hayden are out.

Forward Ty Dellandrea and defenseman Jani Hakanpaa are both questionable for Dallas. The good news for the Stars is that defenseman Miro Heiskanen not only played in Game 4, he led all skaters with more than 31 minutes in ice time.

The Kraken (+180) still trail the Stars (-220) in the odds to win the series.

According to the NHL playoff odds, Dallas (+500) is fifth in the odds to win the Stanley Cup title. Seattle (+1400) is sixth in the championship odds.

Kraken logo Kraken vs Stars Stars logo

Date & Time:
Location: American Airlines Center, Dallas, TX
Streaming: TNT

Firing Blanks

Six of the 12 Seattle forwards failed to register a shot on goal in Game 4 and that is probably not the best strategy for success at this time of the year. That could be why Seattle is listed as the underdog according to the Kraken vs Stars betting preview.

Likely ‘Rookie of the Year’ Matty Beniers, former Stanley Cup champion Yanni Gourde, veteran winger Jordan Eberle and McCann were among those players not to register one shot on goal. Even without an injured McCann, they combined for three goals and seven shots in the previous game.

More will be needed from Seattle’s top offensive players to avoid returning home looking to avoid elimination in Game 6.

Seattle had 44 shots on goal on the road in the series opener and will look to generate more chances as the Kraken look to go up by a game for the third time in this series.

Jordan Schwartz scored twice on his three shots and he has three goals and one assist in the series.

Getting Better With Age

Something about this time of the year agreed with veteran forward Joe Pavelski.

Even though he missed most of the previous series due to a concussion, Pavelski has six goals and 15 shots in the first four games of the series. He is one of the reasons why Dallas is favored when it comes to the Kraken vs Stars betting preview.

While he has at least 25 goals during the regular season in each of the last three years, his best work has come during the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

He scored for the sixth time in the series with the Kraken. He also led the Stars with four shots on goal and four blocked shots.

Pavelski already owns the goal-scoring record by an American-born player. He is one goal behind Sidney Crosby and two in back of Alexander Ovechkin, the only players with more postseason NHL goals than Pavelski.

Handicapping the Series

Each of the seven games played this season went over the total with three of the four games in the series finishing with nine goals scored. Will there be more offensive fireworks as the series returns to American Airlines Arena on Thursday?

Dallas is 3-1-1 at home against Seattle since the Kraken entered the NHL.

Dallas and Seattle were involved in two of the lowest-scoring series in the opening round of the playoffs. It has been a different story when looking at the NHL playoff scores in the second round.

There have been at least three combined goals scored in six different periods in the series.

Seattle did close the gap on faceoffs, winning 24 of 52 in Game 4. The last time the teams played in Dallas, the Stars won 44 of 64 faceoffs

The Kraken are 30-17 against the spread on the road. Dallas is 21-25 against the NHL betting lines in its 45 home games.

Dallas is 42-24-10 when listed as the favorite by the NHL odds with the Kraken 23-29-4 as the underdog.

After an overtime game in the series opener, the last three games have been decided by two, five and three goals with the losing team pulling their goalie in each of the last two contests.

The best odds of +175 are for the Stars to win the series in six games and it is +200 for Dallas to take it in seven games compared to +400 for the Kraken to win the series in seven games.

When looking at the NHL scores and odds, Dallas is priced at -200 to win Game 5 with Seattle at +170. The total has been bumped up to six due to the amount of scoring in the series.

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