The 2017 Winter Classic takes place on Monday as the Chicago Blackhawks visit the St. Louis Blues at Busch Stadium which is the home of the St. Louis Cardinals. These two rivals have already met three times this season with Chicago winning twice including two weeks ago in St. Louis. Monday’s contest will be played outside so the weather could have an impact but it won’t be snow but rain as the start time could be affected by the amount of rain in the forecast. These teams played a couple of weeks ago in St. Louis and it was Chicago winning 6-4 as road underdogs.
This war on the ice will go down Monday, January 2, 2016, at 1 p.m. ET at Busch Stadium. The game will be televised live on NBC.
We'll have NHL odds at BookMaker.eu available for this and every game on the NHL Monday schedule.
Odds Analysis
The Blackhawks will be wrapping up a three-game road trip on Monday. They started the trip in Nashville on Thursday and then had a game in Carolina on Friday before two days off to get ready for this game on Monday. The Blackhawks were 9-7 in their first 16 road games with 9 of those games going under, 3 going over with 4 pushes.
The Blues are playing the third game of a six-game homestand that started on Wednesday with a 6-3 win over Philadelphia. The Blues had a game against Nashville on Friday and then two days off to get ready for this Monday game. The Blues were 14-6 in their first 20 home games with 7 going over, 7 going under with 6 pushes.
The Blues will be listed as a slight home favorite in this contest with the total at 5 over or 5.5 under.
Special Teams
The Blackhawks are scoring 2.7 goals per game which is 13th in the league and the power play is just 16th in the league at 18.3%. Chicago has not been consistently scoring goals lately as before the game against Nashville they had scored a total of 5 goals in their previous three games. Chicago is allowing 2.4 goals per game which is 7th in the league. The penalty killing for Chicago has been bad as the Blackhawks are 29th in penalty killing at just 74.7%.
St. Louis has been good on the power play at 6th in the league at 22.3%. St. Louis is scoring 2.9 goals per game which is 9th in the league. The Blues have been excellent in penalty killing at 87% which is 2nd in the league. Even with great penalty killing, the Blues are just 23rd in the league in goals allowed at 2.9 per game.
Goalie Report
The Blackhawks top goaltender is Corey Crawford who is 12-10 on the season with a 2.29 goals against average. He should be getting the start in this contest with backup Scott Darling on the bench.
The Blues starter should be Jake Allen who is 16-11 on the season with a 2.63 goals against average. The backup is Carter Hutton who is 3-6 on the season with a 2.92 goals against average.
Free NHL Picks
These teams have split their last ten meetings with two of the last three going over. The Blackhawks won 2-1 and 6-4 in St. Louis earlier this season while the Blues won 5-2 in Chicago. The Blackhawks have won six of the last ten in St. Louis with four games going over, three going under with three pushes.
Chicago has plenty of experience playing in big games and they have proven recently that they can win in St. Louis. I will take the Blackhawks to get the road win in this contest. I also will go against the trends a little bit and play this game over the total.
NHL Odds: Blackhawks 4, Blues 3
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