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The St. Louis Blues and Vancouver Canucks are all alone at the top of the Western Conference battling it out for home ice advantage throughout the Western Conference playoffs. Both teams are also fighting with the New York Rangers for the President’s Trophy as the top team in the regular season. To all three teams, the top spot in each conference means much more than the President’s Trophy because those top spots mean home ice. The St. Louis Blues looked like it had the top spot in the Western Conference locked up to the point where even the baseball betting experts thought the Blues would hold on to the conference lead. But a stumble by the Blues and some great hockey by the Canucks have made this a race that will come down to this final game of the betting season.

Another race that should come down to the final game of the season is the race for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference. The Dallas Stars have been all over the Western Conference standings but found itself on the outside looking in on the conference playoff race with three games to go. The price per head bookie experts do not give the Stars much of a chance to go deep into the playoffs if the team does make the post-season. But the Stars would at least love to be part of that playoff conversation. When the last week of the season started, the Stars had a chance to finish as high as seventh in the conference. But the Stars need some help and it also needs to win its final game of the year.

St. Louis Blues

The Blues had been trying to build a winning team for the last couple of years and the final piece was head coach Ken Hitchcock. The Blues have the unique luxury of two 20-game winning goaltenders and the competition never knows which goalie it will face from game to game. That is a huge advantage for the Blues and it is something the Blues had been exploiting. Sportsbook reviews of the 10 games the Blues had played prior to the start of this week shows that the Blues had only won four of those 10 games. The Blues had hit losing streaks in the past, but this just seems like a bad time to start one now.

Dallas Stars

The Dallas Stars were not considered a playoff team when the season started. But it has managed to get good goaltending from Kari Lehtonen and some pretty solid scoring in key situations to stay in the playoff hunt. The Stars have been as high as the top three in the conference and as low as 10th place or lower in the Western Conference. As the season comes to an end, the Stars are fighting for its playoff life. Dallas needs this game but that is not guarantee that it will win.

The Bottom Line

NHL fans in Dallas have been on an emotional roller coaster this season. The team has not had a legitimate starting goaltender in several years but yet has managed to remain competitive. The St. Louis Blues carry two legitimate starting goaltenders and is looking to make a run at the Stanley Cup finals this season. While Dallas fans want to believe that this game will be close, it could very well go the other way.

BSNblog Free Pick: St. Louis Blues