NHL Playoffs

​Minnesota Wild at Dallas Stars

    Game 2 tonight between the Stars and the Wild after the Stars decided to fuck me in the first matchup. The Stars went down in the first and then took a commanding 2-1 lead just to give it up at the end of the second and lose in the second overtime period. While the Stars pissed me off on Monday and their moneyline hitting would have made my night, if they lose today I’m considering this series over. Even though both the Wild and the Stars have played very well both home and away this season. If the Wild go on a two game winning streak in Dallas and then head home to Minnesota on that high, I believe that the Stars will get swept. This is why we have a must win in Dallas tonight.
 
    During game 1 of the series the Wild goalie, Filip Gustavsson, played out of his fucking mind. He saved 51-53 shots and kept the Stars goalless besides the two he let in on powerplays. This means that without the powerplays he went 45-45 shots that he faced. While this is absolutely crazy it’s not unlike how he has been performing throughout the entirety of the season. He has a 0.931 save percentage and only allows 2.1 GPG. The Stars are going to have to figure out a way to score on this guy besides on the powerplay if they want any chance in winning this series.

With his 45th save tonight, Filip Gustavsson has set a new franchise playoff record for most saves in a game--breaking the previous mark set by Niklas Backstrom, 4/14/08 at COL (R1-Game 3). #mnwild x #gritfirst pic.twitter.com/Ack03mgRM5

— Minnesota Wild PR (@mnwildPR) April 18, 2023

    The Stars are used to scoring a lot more goals in their games than the Wild. The Stars average 3.41 GPG while the Wild average a mere 2.91. The way that I see Dallas winning games is if they can find a way to score more than 2 goals in a game. If the Stars can make the games shootouts, then I don’t think that the Wild are going to be able to keep up with them from a scoring standpoint. And since the teams just played 5 periods of hockey less than 48 hours ago, I believe this is one of the matchups where the Stars are going to be able to put the puck in the net, A LOT.
 
    This is going to be a fun matchup and I think that a lot of goals are going to be scored which the Wild are not use too. In the end the Stars are going to overpower Gustavsson and put in 5 tonight. Here are the picks:
 
Hammer:  Stars ML
 
Hammer:  Stars TT o2.5
 
Sprinkle: DAL/MIN o5.5
 
Sprinkle: Jason Robertson o3.5 shots

​ - Jacob