This is a 10* GAME 1 WINNER on the Dallas Stars.

Why is Colorado favored here? You may not realize, but Dallas took all four games over the Avs in the regular season. Colorado did earn a 4-0 win over Dallas on August 5th in "round robin" play, but before the Pandemic hit and before the Stars started to play good hockey again, especially after crushing the Flames in six games (7-3 win in Game 6!), this was a matchup which completely favored Dallas.

And I think that is going to be the case again here in Game 1. The Stars are back to playing at an extremely high level and I don't think they're getting enough respect from the oddsmakers.

Colorado looked decent in its series win over the Coyotes, but this is a matchup which has consitently given it troubles all year.

The Avs are also interestingly just 5-16 in their last 21 Conference Semifinal games, while Dallas is as mentioned above, 4-1 its last five in this series.

The Stars' offense is firing on all cylinders and their defense is under-rated. I'm calling for the upset in Game 1!

Good luck, NP