NHL: Dallas vs Detroit Pick
Thursday night hockey features a tilt between the Dallas Stars (9-11-5) and the Detroit Red Wings (14-6-5). Cappers Picks will provide free NHL picks all season so check back in often.
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Dallas vs Detroit
When: Wednesday, Dec 3 2014 at 7:30 pm ET
Where: Joe Louis Arena
TV:
NHL ATS Gambling Line: Dallas +156 / Detroit -172
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The Stars and Wings will meet for the first of two meetings this season and if you want to get a good idea of how and how not to build a successful team, then look no further than this game. Dallas made a big splash in the off-season acquiring the likes of Jason Spezza and Ales Hemsky to add depth to their one-two punch of Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin. Many pundits hopped on the Dallas train immediately, labeling them a legit contender in the Western Conference. Not so much so far. Detroit meanwhile never seems to make huge acquisitions (save for the recent one year Daniel Alfredsson experiment) and yet they just continue to win by building from within.
Stars
This is a team that has puzzled so far. Much in the same mold as the Edmonton Oilers, the Stars boast a wealth of talent up front with the likes of Seguin, Benn, Spezza, Hemsky, and to a lesser extend, vets like Erik Cole and Shawn Horcoff. That’s a pretty solid top six on any team, but it hasn’t translated to a lot of success so far this season.
Dallas is mired in a three game losing skid where they’ve surrendered five goals in each contest. The Stars have scored nine goals in those three and generally averaging three goals for a night is good enough to get you at least a win or two, but Dallas has just been poor defensively and goalie Kari Lehtonen, despite some solid play, hasn’t been able to steal a win.
On Tuesday night the Stars opted to play an open ice uptempo game against a very speedy Toronto team that can fill the net and it backfired. Lehtonen made several highlight reel saves and if not for him, the 5-3 loss could’ve easily been 8 or 9-3. As mentioned this team is just undermanned on the back end. Trevor Daley and Alex Goligoski are decent players but that’s not a top pair on any competitive team.
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Red Wings
Detroit is very much the yin to the Stars’ yang in that they didn’t make any major off-season acquisitions but they’re winning hockey games. The Wings instead have built by developing players like Gustav Nyquist, Tomas Tatar, Justin Abdelkader and Tomas Jurco. Coach Mike Babcock employs a tight-checking, puck possession style that makes the Wings difficult to break down and it’s a rare occurrence to see them get beat by more than a goal.
The Red Wings come into this came off a loss to Florida earlier this week that saw their four game win streak snapped and this team hasn’t lost back to back games since early in November. This team isn’t flashy in their play, though they have plenty of flash to go around with the likes of Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg and Nyquist. With only 65 goals allowed, the Wings are one of the toughest teams to score on in the Eastern Conference and that can be attributed to their style of play and goaltender Jimmy Howard has been very solid in net with a 2.23 GAA and .916 SV%.
As mentioned, this team has not dropped back to back games in over a month and they always seem to respond well after a loss. I’d expect Mike Babcock to have worked out the kinks after a pretty uncharacteristic 4-3 loss to Florida two days ago.
Stars vs. Red Wings 4* Free Pick
Dallas has been on a rough road of late and going into Detroit to face a Wings team looking to atone for a loss is a very tall task for anyone. Detroit however has shown that they can be broken down by teams with speed and skill up front, as they have been beaten by Tampa Bay, Montreal and Toronto last month and surrendered four goals in each contest. Dallas does have the forward group to put up some goals on Detroit but they will have to avoid defensive lapses if they hope to stay in this one.
I think the woes continue for the Stars, who have been only been able to keep their opponents to less than three goals twice in their last eight outings. Go with Detroit in this game.
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