Stars vs Knights Betting Preview: Vegas Heads Home

The Dallas Stars can wipe the bad taste from their mouths from last postseason after the Vegas Golden Knights knocked them out of the playoffs. Oddsmakers think this will be a battle to the end as the public has bet on both sides. Currently, the Knights are -105 at home while the Stars are -115.  Bettors should stay updated with the current NHL lines as It change constantly. The total of 5.5 is juiced to go over (-120).

Current NHL playoff power standings have the Stars at number six while Vegas is 13th, but don’t expect Vegas to go down easy. Let’s get into our Stars vs Knights betting preview for Friday’s clash.

Depth Shines Brightly For Stars

The three straight wins for the Dallas Stars over the defending champs are team wins. Heroes are coming from their bottom six. Last night was no exception after getting a goal from former Golden Knight, Evgenii Dadonov, his second in as many games. His goal tied the game at one and just a minute after Mark Stone gave Vegas a 1-0 lead. The tally didn’t allow Vegas to enjoy their lead while pushing the Knights back into the hole they dug for themselves after losing a 2-0 series advantage.

Third-line center Matt Duchene scored his first of the postseason on a power play almost three minutes after the Dadonov goal to give the Stars a 2-1 lead with linemate Tyler Seguin assisting, his third in as many games. It isn’t like Pete Deboer’s team is getting scoring from unlikely sources, DeBoer put Matt Duchene and Tyler Seguin on the third line last night with both 25-goal scorers being interchangeable. That’s called incredible depth and that’s the difference between winning three straight in a series and a team looking for answers. 

Knights Can’t Find Offense To Overcome Mistake

If you’re going to take band penalties you’d better have the offense to overcome if you lose the special teams battle. Alex Pietrangelo retaliated against Tyler Seguin by throwing a punch after Seguin delivered a hit to the head of defenseman Shea Theodore.

Vegas thought there should have been more punishment than a 2-minute illegal check minor, but when there wasn’t, an immediate bounty on Seguin became the goal. Eventual retaliation was delivered by Pietrangelo who received a major penalty but later reduced to a rughing minor. It didn’t matter because VGK couldn’t kill off the penalty and the Stars took a 3-2 lead on Jason Robertson’s power-play goal. That was the defining moment that NHL media outlets in the country have pinpointed as the turning point.

Still, we would like to spotlight that Vegas won just 44.7% of the faceoffs and was sloppy with the puck while sticking to their game plan of physicality, outhitting the Stars 42-26. In goal, Bruce Cassidy has a choice to make after making Adin Hill the game-four starter over Logan Thompson. Hill led the Knights to a championship last year but allowed three goals on 25 total shots.

No matter how bleak it looks for the Golden Knights, they had plenty of chances starting with Brett Howden hitting the post and Jake Oettinger stopping Chandler Stephenson on a breakaway. Vegas had their chances and still has a championship heartbeat, but it’s time for the superstars to reach down and carry the club into game seven. Cassidy made major changes with his line-up before game six, his next move will be the difference between heading back to Dallas or staying home for the Summer. 

Bettors Think The Series Is Over…Barely

The fact that Dallas is the favorite isn’t surprising but we thought we would have a betting mismatch in terms of the percentage of money wagered, but just 54% of the early tickets counted are on the Stars. To make things more interesting is that 75% of the puckline wagers are on VGK +1.5 (-270). It’s safe to say that bettors are torn on the side, but not on the total where 71% of the wagers are flowing in on the over 5.5 (-120).

We always say to forget what you just saw when making hockey predictions, but it’s difficult because we’ve now seen five games, and the Stars continue to gain momentum. To bet the Knights would be to cross our fingers that Vegas will find their offense and we’re not about betting on hope.

Our official selection is the Dallas Stars. But get it now because we think the number will continue to rise.

That does it for our Stars vs Knights betting preview, all the best with your NHL picks and parlays. 

Stars vs Knights Betting Odds

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