Looking forward to what should be an entertaining western conference final between the Edmonton Oilers and Dallas Stars.

Both clubs had great generated plenty of offence in the regular season, each consistently near the top of the league in terms of shot and scoring chance rates in all situations. And that translated into plenty of goals, with Dallas finishing with the third highest rate of goals per hour (3.54) and Edmonton finishing fourth (3.53). Both teams also had excellent results on the powerplay, with Edmonton finishing with the second highest rate of goals (10.53 per hour), while Dallas finished fifth (9.15 per hour). And a lot of their strengths from the regular season are transferring to the playoffs.

Here’s how both teams have performed so far in the 2024 playoffs at even-strength. Pretty evenly matched clubs, with Dallas having the upper-hand when it comes to goaltending. Dallas appears to be struggling to score goals, which is a little odd considering their shooting percentage over the regular season was one the best in the western conference (9.33 percent). Should note, however, that over the final twenty five games of their season, the Stars did see their shooting percentage slip a little, so maybe we shouldn’t be too surprised.

And here’s a quick glance at how the Dallas Stars skaters have performed in their first two rounds.

Interesting to note that while Tanev is having excellent results, he and Lindell could potentially be exploited by the Oilers top line players as the Stars tend to allow a lot of shots and chances with them on the ice. The Stars top defensive pairing is going to be lethal, so I’m curious to see how Knoblauch runs the forward lines with last change at home in games three and four.

Data: Natural Stat Trick