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Posted at 10:15 AM EST

6:05 PM EST. The Predators have the loud jerseys, the recent playoff pedigree, the loud building, the music playing in the streets and perhaps most importantly, far more market credibility than the Stars. If you missed Dallas’ 3-2 series opening win in Nashville, trust us when we tell you it was a flattering score for  the home side. Dallas had 30 scoring chances to the Preds 21. Of those 21 Preds’ chances, only five were of the high danger quality. This Dallas team was built for playoff hockey and while the Preds get all the accolades, it is Dallas that plays a methodical and very effective brand of hockey.

This Stars team is built on defense and goaltending, with some timely offense built in. Their system is a simple one that limits high danger chances, keep pucks and people to the outside of the rink, and compete through the neutral zone with strong backchecking. All of those elements made the Stars extremely hard to play against down the stretch and in Game 1. The Stars also have some speed throughout their lineup, which makes their back-check seem relentless. Couple that with the goaltending they receive on a nightly basis, and the Stars now have an identity and a road map on how to win a hockey game, not to mention some early playoff success. That’s huge. In Game 1, the Stars deployed their style to perfection, suffocating the Predators forwards, layering their in-zone structure, and finding timely saves from Ben Bishop.

The Preds are flashy as hell and this market believes they have the best defense in the game but they’re wrong, as Nashville’s defense is perhaps the best collection of offensive D-men in the league but they are not great in their own end. Everyone knows Roman Josi, Ryan Ellis and P.K. Subban but how many know who Miro Heiskanen is or Esa Lindell for that matter? Miro Heiskanen is absurdly great. He's always been able to skate and be in the right place and poke pucks away but now he’s contributing offensively too while Esa Lindell is so good that he allows his partner, the offensively gifted John Klingberg, to move up into the play. These are three elite defensemen playing for the same team but all anyone wants to discuss is Josi and Subban.

The best players on the ice in Game 1 were not Filip Forsberg, Roman Josi, Ryan Johansen, Viktor Arvidsson or Pekka Rinne. The best players on the ice all played for Dallas and one of them, Roope Hintz, is another player that few have heard of. We cannot overstate how grossly overvalued the Predators are and while we have no idea who is going to win this game, we absolutely know that Dallas has a GREAT chance and we absolutely know where all the value lies.

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