Kraken vs Stars Betting Odds: Dallas Favored to End Run by Upstart Seattle Kraken
Questions Surround Availability of Star Forwards Joe Pavelski and Jared McCann
Stars Favored as Kraken Crash the Boards for Tuesday’s Series Opener
When the season began, there were no playoff projections for a Seattle Kraken team heading into its second NHL season. The thought of Seattle eliminating the defending Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche in seven games in the opening round seemed beyond unlikely.
However, the Kraken are still around and will head to Dallas for the series opener on Tuesday with a spot in the Western Conference Finals on the line. Dallas is favored according to the Kraken vs Stars betting odds.
Among the teams still alive in the playoffs, Dallas ranks second on the power play, converting on 37.5% of the man-advantage situations. The Stars held Minnesota to 51 shots on goal over the last two games of the series.
Both teams finished with just 11 regulation losses on the road during the regular season, so keep that in mind when it is time to make NHL picks.
The top series odds have Dallas winning in five games as that comes with a +375 price with Dallas needing six or seven games to advance featuring +400 odds. Seattle winning in six games comes in at +600 and the Kraken taking the series in seven games is listed at +650.
Dallas (+500) is third in the NHL Stanley Cup odds and second to Edmonton among Western Conference teams. Seattle is last among the eight remaining teams at +1600 in the championship odds.
Keep on reading for more about the Seattle and Dallas teams. When looking at the NHL schedule, the series begins on Tuesday at 9:30 p.m. ET at American Airlines Center in Dallas.
All Hands On Deck
With a team in its second NHL season, players from different backgrounds. Some of them were picked in the expansion draft while others were selected off waivers. That is reflected in the Kraken vs Stars betting odds.
As a result, Seattle is the only team remaining in the playoffs without a player with more than two goals during the first-round series.
The Kraken has made up for the lack of one player carrying the load by having 15 different goal scorers.
Jaden Schwartz, who won a Stanley Cup with the St. Louis Blues, s Morgan Geekie and Oliver Bjorkstrand with two goals each. Yanni Gourde, the team leader with five assists and six points, brought his experience from winning Stanley Cups with the Tampa Bay Lightning to a Seattle team in its second season of existence.
Bjorkstrand, who hadn’t been in the playoffs since 2020, had the two goals in Game 7.
Ironically, one of the only forwards not to have a goal for Seattle is McCann, the team leader with 40 during the regular season.
Taking That Next Step
Roope Hintz had solid offensive numbers in his first three Stanley Cup playoffs with nine goals and 16 assists in 44 career playoff games. It has been a different deal this year.
Hintz leads all NHL players with 12 points in the playoffs with five goals and seven assists. He is one of the reasons that Dallas is favored when it comes to the Kraken vs Stars betting odds.
He scored at least three points in three of the six games against Minnesota during the previous series.
Not only are the 12 points the most of any player, he scored three times at even strength, twice on the power play and once while short-handed.
It shouldn’t come as that much of a surprise after he matched his career-high with 37 goals during the regular season and had career-bests with 75 points and a plus/minus rating of +31.
Handicapping the Series
Joe Pavelski of the Stars and Jared McCann of the Kraken combined for 68 goals during the regular season. Both are questionable for the series opener after being on the receiving end of hits that knocked them out of action in the opening round series.
Seattle snapped a three-game losing streak to Dallas with a 5-4 win in overtime on March 21 on a goal by defenseman Adam Larsson.
The teams met three times in less than two weeks in March, with both teams scoring 10 times and each team recording an overtime win on the road.
Each of the three games played this season went over the total.
Dallas is 2-0-1 at home against Seattle since the Kraken entered the NHL.
Among goalies who played in at least four games in the playoffs, Jake Oettinger of Dallas is third with a 2.01 goals-against average with Philipp Grubauer of Seattle sixth at 2.44. Grubauer faced 48 more shots in the first-round series than Oettinger did.
Dallas leads the playoffs by winning 56.3% of its faceoffs. Seattle is ahead of only Minnesota among playoff teams as the Kraken won just 45% of the draws in the Colorado series.
Seattle was impressive on the penalty kill, but struggled on the power play in the Colorado series. The opposite was true for Dallas.
The Kraken is 29-16 against the spread on the road. Dallas is 20-24 against the NHL betting lines in its 44 home games.
Dallas is 40-22-9 when listed as the favorite by the NHL odds with the Kraken 21-27-4 as the underdog. Dallas is priced at -175 and Seattle at +155 to win Game 1. Game 2 is Thursday in Dallas before the series shifts to Seattle for Games 3 and 4.
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