The Dallas Stars clinched the top wild-card spot in the Western Conference, and their reward is a trip to the Music City to meet the Central Division champion Nashville Predators for a best-of-seven series in the Stanley Cup Playoff Quarterfinals.

Odds provided by FanDuel; for a full-set of today's sports betting odds, access them at Paste BN Sports.

Dallas Stars at Nashville Predators: By the Numbers

• The Predators edged the Stars 3-2 in five regular-season meetings, with Nashville winning each of the two games decided in overtime.
• The road team was victorious in four of the five meetings in this series this season.

• The Predators ranked dead-last in the NHL in power-play percentage (12.9 percent), lighting the lamp 33 times on the man advantage through 82 regular-season games.
• This is the first-ever meeting between these teams in a postseason series.

Dallas Stars at Nashville Predators: Projected Goalie Starters

Ben Bishop vs. Pekka Rinne

Christopher Hanewinckel-Paste BN Sports

Bishop struggled with a lower-body injury late in the season. When he was healthy, he almost single-handedly kept this team in the hunt for the postseason. He posted a 1.98 goals-against average to rank second in the NHL, while leading the league with a .934 save percentage.

Rinne was not among the league leaders in those categories, but he managed a 30-19-4 record, 2.42 GAA and .918 save percentage with four shutouts across 56 games. However, he was just 1-2-0 with a 2.77 GAA and .916 save percentage in three regular-season starts vs. Dallas.

Dallas Stars at Nashville Predators: Key Injuries

Stars RW Mats Zuccarello (arm) returned from a broken arm to appear in a game April 2, but he didn't play the entire way and he was scratched for the remaining regular-season games as a precaution. He practiced Monday and is expected to be ready for Game 1.

Dallas Stars at Nashville Predators: NHL Best Bet

Moneyline: The Predators ( -155) are the favorites to take Game 1 in the Music City despite the fact they managed to go just 1-2 in three home games vs. the Stars this season, getting outscored 7-4. The Stars ( +145) are moderate underdogs, and would be a nice play if not for the concerns about Bishop's lower-body issues.

Against the spread: If you're feeling the Preds at home, the puck line ( -1.5, +185) could be very lucrative. However, Nashville has only covered this line once in five tries against Dallas this season. The Stars ( +1.5, -185) is too chalky, so if you like Dallas, just go with the moneyline.

Over/under: The Total (5) is low in what is expected to be a defensive grind of a series. The Under was 10-2 in the final 12 regular-season games for Nashville, and 13-4-1 in the final 18 for Dallas. Thump the under for most of this series.

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