NHL Betting – Dallas Stars at San Jose Sharks
By Zack Garrison in News
Updated: January 17, 2018 at 9:40 am ESTPublished:
Dallas Stars (+132) at San Jose Sharks (-146, 5.5 o/u)
Two teams on the verge of playoff elimination will square off tonight as the San Jose Sharks (39-31-9, 87 pts) host the Dallas Stars (38-31-10, 86 pts) at the SAP Center (10:30 PM Eastern) with both teams looking to keep their slim postseason hopes alive.
With just three games left in the regular season, the Stars are currently six points out of a playoff spot. (We’ll let you do the math on that one.)
The team made a bit of a playoff push late, going 6-4 in their last ten, but it hasn’t been enough to close the gap in the Wild Card race and now Dallas looks destined for an early summer.
The Stars’ fate was all but sealed with back to back losses to the Flames and Blues last week. Though the team was able to rebound with a 4-3 OT over Nashville on Saturday.
“Getting the win is the most important thing for us, but it’s definitely nice to pitch in,” said Dallas forward Travis Moen, who notched a goal and a helper against Nashville.
San Jose’s playoff outlook is nearly as dire as Dallas’. The Sharks currently have 87 points and are five back of a postseason berth with three games to go.  They missed a huge opportunity to stay in contention on the weekend, falling 5-3 to the lowly Coyotes in Arizona.
San Jose threw everything they had at the Coyotes, racking up 45 shots. But Arizona goalie Mike Smith had one of his best games in an otherwise dismal season, stopping 42 of 45 and posting a .933 save percentage.
Though the team’s destiny is firmly in the hands of its Western Conference rivals, Sharks coach Todd McLellan is only worrying about the things his squad can control.
“We’ve got six points that are available to us,” said McLellan. “We’re going to go and try to get them all and see what happens.”
In the trends, San Jose has won six of the last ten games in the series, and the last two meetings have both gone over.
The Stars are sitting at +132 in the moneyline while the Sharks are a sizeable -146 favorite. The game total is at 5.5. The Sharks have been decent at home, but not spectacular (19-16-5), while the Stars have been a .500 team on the road in regulation (16-16-8).
The Stars at +132 looks like better value.
(Photo credit:Â Ivanmakarov at en.wikipedia [CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], from Wikimedia Commons. Photo has been cropped.)
Sports Writer
Zack is a tour guide whose favorite sports are football, baseball, and golf. He enjoys giving obnoxious commentary during games and hopes to some day write a book about sports. His favorite underdog victory was the Diamondbacks beating the Yankees in game 7 of the World Series.
