NHL Hockey - Dallas Stars (-150, 5) at Columbus Blue Jackets 7:00 PM EST
 Two of the NHL’s least-explosive teams, the Dallas Stars and Columbus Blue Jackets, meet in one of six games on Friday’s schedule. Considering the lack of firepower, it’s no surprise Bookmaker.com has the total at five goals.
The Stars have scored two goals or fewer in six of their last eight games, losing four of them, and rank 28th in the league with 173 goals. Last night they went to St. Louis and fell to the Blues, 5-3, marking their first four-game slide in almost three years.
The Blue Jackets (27-33-7, 61 points) rank 29th in the league (ahead of only Chicago) in scoring with 168 goals and haven’t scored five times in a game since Jan. 16, a stretch of 22 in a row with four goals or fewer. They have won three in a row, however, including a 3-2 shootout victory over these same Stars exactly one week ago.
Left wing David Vyborny is Columbus’ leading scorer with 16 goals and 42 assists for 58 points. He had two goals, including the game-winner with 21 seconds left in overtime, and an assist in Wednesday’s 3-2 win over Los Angeles. Left wing Rick Nash, when healthy, remains a beast on the power play and ranks second on the team in scoring with 21 goals and 25 assists for 46 points.
Dallas (38-23-5, 81 points) has seven players with at least 10 goals but only one (Jere Lehtinen) with more than 20. Lehtinen has a team-high 23 and defenseman Philippe Boucher is next with 18. Both scored last night.
Aside from last Friday’s OT game, these teams also met on Dec. 12 and the Blue Jackets prevailed 3-1.
Dallas as a solid road favorite at -150 at sportsbook.com. |
