Dallas vs. Chicago - Everything About The Upcoming NHL Match

The Dallas vs. Chicago match will take place in the NHL on 18th February. The venue for the match will be the United Center in Chicago. The Chicago team has finished up a peculiar road trip of a few matches. They won against the Edmonton Oilers with a good margin. After that, they lost to the St. Louis Blues a few days later by a bigger margin before going back to Canada for a match in Winnipeg. After more than forty matches, the Dallas team is only some points away from securing a playoff spot in the Western Conference. After the All-Star break, they will play in forty matches in eighty days, including the next seven against the Central Division.

Dallas vs. Chicago Prediction: Chicago Have Been Average This Season

The team has been riding on the goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury since the new year because of the well-spaced schedule. The goaltender has appeared in all the team matches except one since the start of this year. He also had a save percentage of .900 and a goals-against-average of 3. That is not quite bad. But these are not the statistics of the victor of the Vezina Trophy as the best goaltender of the entire league. All in all, the team's goals-against average during that entire stretch is more than three. They were also scoring below 2.7 goals per match. They are quite lucky to be only a match below the usual average during that time. The power play of the team has been on a bright spot recently. They clicked at 26 percent. But the possession data of the club is quite average. They rank more than twenty over the previous fifteen matches with the expected goals rate of about forty-five percent.

The biggest concern is the continuing absence of the captain Jonathan Toews on the injury list because of a concussion that he had several matches ago. He has missed out on more than four matches to this date. Lost in the story that surrounded the big victory of the team over Edmonton, which caused the dismissal of Edmonton's head coach Dave Tippett, was that the team really played a good match and had a lot of opportunities in front of the goal. Surely, they could have had more goals in the match. Still, the team was very threatening offensively. Patrick Kane and Alex Debrincat were the best players on the ice that night. Kirby Dach was among the top overall picks in the draft held a couple of years ago. He had a tight match with a couple of points and has the talent to take the team to greater heights than what the team has achieved so far this year.

This would be a great boost to a team that clearly lacks true offensive options in the present squad. Defensively, the team has stabilized under coach Derek King. But they have started to reverse a little from the great results seen for the initial month of his hiring. But the statistics are still quite better than the situation of the team before he got on board. Looking towards this match, the ability of the team to play a sharp defensive match will be vital, and they will need to capitalize on the suspect defensive play at the other end. It is quite a tough argument to state that they have the same kind of offensive firepower as their rivals in the Dallas vs. Chicago match. Another great performance from the winner of the Vezina trophy, Marc-Ander Fleury, will be vital to the team's chances this season. The goalkeeper has put together an average season but has stabilized a little after a very poor start.

Dallas vs. Chicago Prediction: Dallas Are Near a Spot in the Playoffs

The Dallas Stars make a playoff spot or more that will see them finishing on the outside, looking in at the others. The rise has been rather gradual, but Seguin has been rising with each match this season. After hip and knee surgeries a couple of years ago, he has taken the time to rebuild his mental and physical strength while learning more about his body. With this learning, glimpses of his abilities have come that were present in the past. After getting only nine points in the first twenty-seven matches, Seguin has gotten more than nine points over the previous seven matches. This includes a hat trick against the Boston Bruins. Seguin will only get even better from here as the season proceeds. Returning to center on a line with Denis Gurianov and Jamie Benn should be precisely what it requires to break out even further.

Fans should not forget that he is only twenty-nine years old. While his production has not been quite the same over the previous seasons, he has the talent and capability to return to his superstar status. We think that he will get back his former abilities rather quickly. There is a chance that John Kleinberg will be traded without keeping the playoff position in mind. This prediction is not a very bold one. The defensive player will become a free agent after the end of this season. The team is in a tough position to extend its existing contract. But he has already mentioned the lack of progress in contract negotiations during this season. The major part of this is that we think the player will be traded regardless of where the team stands in the race to the playoffs. Being around the squad over the past couple of months, there is quite a difference in the player's game. Not only is the production and offensive creativity absent, but he has also shown some lapses in his focus. This has resulted in mistakes or poor turnovers.

It feels as if the player has a big weight on his shoulders that stops him from reaching his full potential and being himself. The team would be well advised to search for a trade partner in the likelihood of not extending his contract and trading the player. The only way he stays on with the team is if the squad is quite confident that they can negotiate a contract in the summer. We think that Roope Hintz will score more than 40 goals in the entire season. He had a great season in the previous year. After only averaging over a point per match in the previous season while playing through a groin injury, the forward has more than thirty points in forty matches this season. He is playing on the offensive line with Jason Robertson and Joe Pavelski. The player's growth has accelerated and given him the ability to create a difference every night that he steps into the ice. 

In the second half of the Dallas vs. Chicago match, the player is expected to dominate play as he did in the previous season. He is likely to score 40 goals for the first time in his career and secure his position among the best offensive players and centers on the planet.

Conclusion

The Chicago team has had a lot going for it in the previous seasons. But this season, the team has not seen the quality of matches expected from a team of this caliber. The Dallas team has been on the edge of the playoffs the entire season. They look like they are a single step away from hitting their own stride. We saw a six-game winning streak and a single step from freefall and a rebuilding process. They will hit their stride in the latter half of the season. The team begins their push with more than seven straight matches against the Central Division. There is no better method of getting an advantage in the standings than playing head-on with the squads chasing. The team has little control over the squads in the Pacific Division. But they can make up for lost ground quickly. We think that they will do precisely that and reach the top of the division and get a spot in the playoffs. The Dallas vs. Chicago prediction is that the match can go either way.

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