NHL odds<\/a> board, carrying -250 odds on the money line and -102 to cover -1.5 goals. The Flames are +200 outright and are -118 to cover +1.5. The game total is 5.5 goals with the over being -118 and the under being -102.\u00a0<\/p>\nThe odds indicate a Stars win is all but a formality. But recent results do not make the click quite as comfortable. Dallas is 2-5-2 in their last nine games, and have dropped four of their last five games at home. Meanwhile, the Flames are 6-2-1 in their last nine games. This could be a better game than the lines indicate.<\/p>\n
Calgary Flames<\/p>\n
During Calgary\u2019s current run, they beat St. Louis, Florida, Tampa, Los Angeles, and Anaheim. Each team is higher than Calgary in the league-standings and makes for a tough matchup. The Flames beat all of them, some convincingly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After a stretch of four consecutive wins, it looked like Calgary ran out of gas. They dropped three out of their next four, with a couple of blowout losses entering their last game. Despite ugly losses, Calgary bounced back against playoff-bound Anaheim. This team is going down fighting to end the year, and opponents should not take them for granted.<\/p>\n
Ryan Strome has been a big help since coming over from Anaheim. He notched his 500th career point last week. He has three goals and four points in his last four games.<\/p>\n
Dallas Stars<\/p>\n
The Stars are in need of a win on Tuesday. Not because they need points in the standings, but because the last thing they need is to be going into a first-round series against the Wild in such poor form. This will be a motivated Stars team tonight to turn things around.\u00a0<\/p>\n
If there is any glass half-full to Dallas\u2019 current slump, it\u2019s that they have had some tough opponents. Regardless, if this is a team serious about competing for the Cup, they need to beat the likes of the Devils, Islanders, and now Flames. The Stars are the better team in this game, as evidenced by their body of work this season. They are not in better form, though. Look for Dallas to come out with urgency to change that factor.<\/p>\n
Jason Robertson is closing out a great regular season that has him at 89 points heading into this game. He\u2019s only increasing his value if he does decide to resign with the Stars in the offseason.<\/p>\n
NHL Prediction: Who Will Win Flames vs. Stars?<\/p>\n
As tough as their nine-game stretch has been, ultimately the Stars are 2-2-1 in their last five. Ideally, they have more than two wins in five games and three in 10. But their last three losses have come to Philadelphia, Boston, and Colorado, all of whom are in playoff spots. All hope is not lost for the Stars.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Flames are playing well in the last couple of weeks despite two losses in their last three games. But they are just not a reliable play. Calgary has had some ugly lows among a few highs this season. In a high-leverage game in which the better team needs the two points, the Stars have the appeal. They should come out with some added jam and win an important one 4-2. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of these teams is going to the playoffs as a legitimate Stanley Cup contender. The other team…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":545831,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[895,26,5294,896,5,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-545830","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-calgary-flames","8":"tag-calgary","9":"tag-calgary-flames","10":"tag-calgaryflames","11":"tag-flames","12":"tag-hockey","13":"tag-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116364391651546567","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=545830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/545831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=545830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=545830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=545830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}