Dallas Stars vs. Chicago Blackhawks Prediction, Preview, Picks & Odds - 4/10/2022

Time: 7 p.m. ET

Venue: United Center, Chicago, IL

Where to watch: Bally Sports Southwest X, NBC Sports Chicago

DraftKings: Stars -155, Blackhawks +135

BetMGM: Stars -160, Blackhawks +135

Caesars: Stars -161, Blackhawks +140

Stars: 40-27-4

Blackhawks: 24-36-11

If you're scouring the news today and see that the world's largest gift basket was delivered from Las Vegas to New Jersey, rest assured that the Vegas Golden Knights were cheering on what was transpiring in Dallas on Saturday.

The Dallas Stars dropped a critical game against the New Jersey Devils and now things have tightened up more considerably in the Western Conference Wild Card race than previously anticipated. And now the Stars have to play a back-to-back, while traveling to Chicago for an early game, to face the Chicago Blackhawks at United Center on Sunday.

Dallas had a 1-0 lead going into the third against the Devils, but then things went all downhill from there. Ty Smith tied it in the third, and Nico Hischier scored the go-ahead goal with 1:11 remaining to give Dallas a dreadful regulation loss. The Stars' lead on the Golden Knights is down to two, and following this game will only have one game in hand on Vegas.

"We didn't look like a team that wanted to make the playoffs, I'll tell you that," Stars coach Rick Bowness said. "Let's be honest, what do our eyes tell us? There wasn't near enough desperation in our game, it's as simple as that. It's everybody, and they can't point fingers. They've got to look at themselves because it was everybody. We didn't have one person out there, for me, that played a good game."

Bowness opted to go with Jake Oettinger in this game over Scott Wedgewood, opting to use the younger, numbers-wise-better goalie for the home matchup instead of the road game. Wedgewood is likely to go for this matchup after he made 37 stops the other night against Toronto in a 4-3 overtime loss.

"I feel confident in myself, and I think I can get this team to the playoffs," Oettinger said. "Bad goals go in. It's about forgetting about it and moving on and being a rock for this team. I have a great opportunity here to do that, and it's up to me."

The good news for the Stars is they get a team in Chicago that has not scored in a minute. The Blackhawks are coming off being shut out against the Seattle Kraken on Thursday. As expected Philipp Grubauer outplayed Kevin Lankinen and the Chicago offense dried up at an awful time.

"We should've had a couple of goals, obviously, but we didn't," Blackhawks coach Derek King said. "No urgency. I mean, too many passengers. Simple. That's it, in a nutshell. 'Lanks' played a great game. He had no support, and I'm going to have to address that."

Chicago has shown capabilities of scoring as of late, but when you get shut out by one of the worst goalie tandems in the league this year, it's automatically back to the drawing board. Paging Patrick Kane and Alex DeBrincat: The Golden Knights are prepared to send you guys another gift basket should things go well.

Not that I root particularly for one team, but everyone should want Dallas to lose to heighten the cause of insanity for this wild-card race. Just imagine for all the work Dallas does to only now get caught up in the standings. If you're bold, I'd run with the underdog on a slight play. Blackhawks win 3-2

Stars are 13-10 against division opponents this season.

Blackhawks are 4-19 against division opponents this season.

Blackhawks are 0-9 revenging two straight losses as a favorite.

Blackhawks are 10-3 the past three seasons after getting shut out in previous game.

Stars:

Jason Robertson -- Roope Hintz -- Joe Pavelski

Jamie Benn -- Tyler Seguin -- Marian Studenic

Joel Kiviranta -- Vladislav Namestnikov -- Alexander Radulov

Michael Raffl -- Radek Faksa -- Luke Glendening

Ryan Suter -- Miro Heiskanen

Joel Hanley -- John Klingberg

Thomas Harley -- Jani Hakanpaa

Scott Wedgewood

Blackhawks:

Alex DeBrincat -- Dylan Strome -- Patrick Kane

Lukas Reichel -- Jonathan Toews -- Kirby Dach

Dominik Kubalik -- Tyler Johnson -- Taylor Raddysh

Boris Katchouk -- Reese Johnson -- Sam Lafferty

Seth Jones -- Calvin de Haan

Jake McCabe -- Caleb Jones

Alex Vlasic -- Erik Gustafsson

Kevin Lankinen

Points: Joe Pavelski -- 70

Goals: Jason Robertson -- 32

Assists: Joe Pavelski -- 44

Goalie: Jake Oettinger -- 25-12-1, 2.49 GAA, .915 SV%

Points: Patrick Kane -- 80

Goals: Alex DeBrincat -- 39

Assists: Patrick Kane -- 58

Goalie: Kevin Lankinen -- 4-11-6, 3.55 GAA, .890 SV%