TLDR: The Boston Bruins have won 5 straight and outscored the opposition 25-8 doing it. On Tuesday, October 20 they walk into American Airlines Center against a Dallas Stars team that keeps winning games with half its centers in street clothes.
The Boston Bruins (7-2-0) bring a 5-game winning streak into Dallas to close out a 4-game road trip against a Stars team (4-3-1) that has won 2 straight while missing Matt Duchene and Oskar Back. Both teams have a center to sort out at game time: Roope Hintz is questionable for Dallas with an undisclosed injury, while Pavel Zacha practiced fully Monday and is a game-time decision for Boston. The Stars are the thinner team down the middle if Hintz sits, and the game shapes up as Boston's scoring run against a Dallas defense that has allowed 7 goals in its last 5.
Start in the middle of the ice, because that's where this game gets interesting. Dallas is already without Matt Duchene, who is out about 3 months after core surgery, and Oskar Back, who has a broken finger and is expected to miss 4-6 weeks. Roope Hintz left the 4-0 win in Chicago with an undisclosed injury and never came back, Glen Gulutzan had no update afterward, and he's questionable heading into tonight. Hintz is projected to center Jason Robertson and Tyler Seguin on the 2nd line. If he can't go, Gulutzan is building a center depth chart out of whoever is left standing.
Boston has a center question too, and theirs is trending the right way. Pavel Zacha took a hit late in the win at Anaheim, missed the Kings game with an upper-body injury, then was a full go at practice Monday. He's a game-time decision, and if he plays he slots back between Morgan Geekie and David Pastrnak on the top line. The Bruins didn't miss him in Los Angeles. Jeremy Swayman stopped 25 of 26, Pastrnak tied it in the 2nd and Khusnutdinov scored the winner at 13:36 of the 3rd. Boston also scratched Nikita Zadorov that night, so the lineup is still getting shuffled even with the wins piling up. Dallas opened as the home favorite anyway.
Dallas is 4-3-1, and that record makes them look worse than they've played. The 3 losses were all close, including 1-goal games against Pittsburgh and Colorado, and the Stars got the Avalanche back the next night. They've also posted 2 4-0 shutouts in their last 5, at Buffalo and in Chicago, where they held a Blackhawks team that had scored 9 goals in 2 games since Connor Bedard's return to nothing. When this group keeps games low-scoring, it's hard to beat.
Boston's run comes with a bit of context. The first 2 wins of the streak were blowouts at home over Utah and Philadelphia, and the last 3 came on a West Coast trip through San Jose, Anaheim and Los Angeles. Dallas is the 4th straight road game. The 4-1 final in LA also looks bigger than the game was, since 2 of those goals went into an empty net after Khusnutdinov broke the tie late. This is a team winning the tight stretch of games, which is a better sign than the scores suggest and also a reminder that it hasn't been as easy as they look.
So it's Boston's offense against a Dallas defense that has allowed 7 goals in its last 5, and the Stars' depth is the thing being tested. The status of Hintz and Zacha is the news to watch between now and puck drop at 7:00 PM CT. If both play, you get a Bruins team that has rolled for 2 weeks against a Stars team that was showing up just as well before the injuries hit.
Bruins vs. Stars: Polymarket Odds & Prediction (Oct. 20) — Red-Hot Bruins Take Their Road Trip to a Banged-Up Dallas · Barstool Bush
