NHL Odds, Preview, Prediction: Stars vs. Flyers (Jan. 24)

Updated Stars vs. Flyers Odds

Dallas heads to Philadelphia looking to build on a 2-0 start to a four-game eastern road swing.

Philadelphia, meanwhile, will be desperately searching for a win to snap an 11-game losing streak.

Stars Hope To Cure Road Roes

The Western wild card is wide open, and a 7-4-0 stretch has Dallas right in the thick of it, even if the Stars have offered wildly inconsistent play so far this season.

The Stars have posted a strong 52.91 xGF% rate at even strength over that time and hold a quietly dominant top powerplay unit to boot, featuring their ridiculously strong top trio of Roope Hintz, Joe Pavelski and Jason Robertson that is effectively quarterbacked by John Klingberg.

The talent on hand with this Stars roster should be able to perform at a slightly better level results wise than we have seen. A date with the Flyers offers a great chance to build on two big road wins to start the trip.

The Stars' road record is still a terrible 6-12-1, but that's not exactly a stat which I feel is likely to continue big picture. I expect a leveling between their markedly different home and road results as the season moves along, as the splits between the two winning percentages is among the highest rates seen in recent NHL memory.

As well I would argue that we should see Jake Oettinger's numbers trend upwards moving forward, as the 23-year-old is very capable of posting excellent play behind the Stars' solid defensive play.

His middling .905 save % and +1.0 goals saved above expected rating don't accurately reflect his capabilities, with both those numbers tanked by three horrible off nights from his team in a 14-game sample. He should have a good chance to succeed, likely drawing the start here.

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Flyers In Search Of Any Positives

Philadelphia saw its losing streak extended to 11 games in a 6-3 loss at Buffalo Saturday afternoon, and it's very hard to find positives looking towards this team's current form.

The Flyers had done a better job in front of their goal in some hard fought recent efforts, but even still the offensive production continues to be the larger concern. It's hard to see them faring much better at any point with this current roster, particularly now with Kevin Hayes and Joel Farabee joining the IR.

A 47.27 xGF% over the 11-game slump suggests that such an insanely awful  run of results is less than likely, as the Flyers have created legitimate scoring chances throughout a number of recent contests.

Carter Hart should draw the start here for the Flyers, and the young star's resurgence has been one of the lone bright spots this season. He has posted a +3.5 goals saved above expected rating with a .911 save % throughout 26 games played.

Stars vs. Flyers Pick

As expected, Dallas' road play has stabilized to an extent this week, as it's truly just unlikely to see such markedly different results on the road vs. on home ice in the NHL over a large sample.

Philadelphia is in a notably treacherous run of play, and the loss Saturday at Buffalo was among the worst performances of the whole losing streak.

Surely the poor play Saturday was aided by the losses of Joel Farabee and Kevin Hayes from this already horribly thin offense, and it's hard to see this Flyers team being able to generate much yet again here against the Stars.

The talent is just not there for the Flyers right now, and it's hard to find much reason why they can produce a win outside of being "due." I see a lot of value at the current price of -140, in a game which I feel should sit close to -170 by game time.

Pick: Dallas -140 | Play to -165