Dallas Stars vs. Ottawa Senators Prediction, NHL Odds
There’s not much rest for either team as Ottawa and Dallas play out the second half of their respective back-to-back’s Sunday night. The Senators dropped a 3-1 decision to the Leafs last night, while the Stars come in after a 3-1 loss against the Bruins.
Dallas is a -136 favourite to win on the NHL odds, with a total of 5.5.
Stars vs. Senators NHL Odds
It’s been well over a year since these teams met, thanks to last season’s temporary division realignment. Games between Ottawa and Dallas, however, have been historically close. Seven of the last 10 meetings were decided by two or less goals.
Dallas sits at 1-1 on the season, but they come in at just 1-5 straight up in their last six games against Atlantic Division opponents. The Stars have lost six of their last eight games overall against the Senators and the total has gone Under in four of the last five games between these teams in Ottawa.
The Sens are also sitting at 1-1 on the season and they come into Sunday with six straight home wins, dating back to last season. Ottawa has struggled against Central Division teams, however, dropping six of their last seven games.
Neither team has hit the Over yet, this season.
Dallas Stars
Dallas is set to play the third game of their five-game season opening road trip. They won’t drop the puck for their home opener until next Friday against the Kings. It’s been a shaky start to the year for the Stars after the loss in Boston yesterday and a narrow win in New York Thursday. Jacob Peterson and Radek Faksa helped the Stars build a 2-0 lead against the Rangers, but Dallas stumbled and the game needed overtime to solve. Miro Heiskanen went on to bury the OT winner. Luke Glendening picked up the only goal in the Stars’ loss against Boston.
After Braden Holtby stopped 37 of 39 shots against the Bruins, Anton Khudobin will get his first start of the year against Ottawa. Khudobin ended up seeing action in the season opener against New York, after Holtby was hit with a high stick and left the game in the third period. Khudobin was actually credited with the win in that game, stopping all six shots he faced in relief.
Ottawa Senators
The Senators will likely be happy to see a team other than the Toronto Maple Leafs. Ottawa faced Toronto and lost in three of their seven pre-season games and opened the regular season by splitting a home-and-home series against the Leafs. Chris Tierney, Tyler Ennis and Alex Formenton found the back of the net in the season opener, while Josh Norris was the only scorer yesterday. The newly signed Brady Tkachuk is not expected to make his season debut until Thursday against San Jose.
Anton Forsberg has been forced to carry the load in net to start the season because of Matt Murray’s absence. Murray is reportedly dealing with a non-COVID illness and will miss at least the next two games after being placed on injured reserve. Forsberg made a career-high 46 saves in Ottawa’s Thursday win and stopped 26 of 29 shots yesterday. Filip Gustavsson is expected to start against Dallas. The second-year goalie was 7-5-1 with the Sens last season, posting a 2.16 goals-against average and .933 save percentage.
DAL
OTT