The St. Louis Blues'and Dallas Stars open their 2023-24 seasons at American Airlines Arena Thursday. Puck drop is set for 8 p.m. ET (ESPN+). Below, we analyze BetMGM Sportsbook’s'lines around the Blues vs. Stars odds, and make our expert NHL picks and predictions.
The Blues vastly underachieved last year and finished 37-38-7, missing the playoffs for the first time since 2018. They had some guys that were on expiring deals that didn’t make the locker room the most fun place to be, and the Blues cut bait and began a retool.
General manager Doug Armstrong said a couple of days ago he intends for this team to compete for one of the final playoff spots in the Western Conference. They added C Kevin Hayes to add some size in the middle and brought back fan-favorite C Oskar Sundqvist.
The Stars pushed the eventual Stanley Cup Champs Vegas Golden Knights to 6 games in the Western Conference finals last season before running out of gas. C Joe Pavelski had a monster postseason with 9 goals and 5 assists in 14 games. G Jake Oettinger struggled at times but was also a man possessed at other times between the pipes. His presence makes Dallas one of the favorites to win the Central Division.