NHL Playoffs! Greg Frank likes the Dallas Stars over the Calgary Flames in Game 1 from the Edmonton bubble

Flames (+102) @ Stars (5)

Pick: Stars -113

It looks like the early money here is on Calgary as the Flames are down to almost even money. It’s not a huge surprise to see the Flames garnering support. They handled the Jets relatively easily in the qualifying round and the Stars looked spotty at times in the round robin. I’m drawing the line in the sand though and buying Dallas in this one. I think it’s going to be very easy in the Stanley Cup Playoffs to fall victim to recency bias. There’s no doubt Calgary was more impressive in the first week in the Edmonton bubble than Dallas. But the Stars were the far superior team prior to the pause and is much better on the blue line and in goal than the Flames are. Calgary was also playing a short-handed Winnipeg team after Mark Scheifele and Patrik Laine exited the series in Game One with injuries. I fully believe the Stars are a Stanley Cup contender and will back them in the opener against the Flames at a tick above standard juice.