The St. Louis Blues are road favorites on Sunday night as they visit the Colorado Avalanche on NBCSN. The Blues are in a battle for the last Wild Card spot in the Western Conference while the Avalanche are in last place in the conference. This is simply a game that St. Louis can’t afford to lose against a very bad Colorado team. The Blues have won six of the last ten meetings in this series, including the last three.
Don't miss the ice action from the Pepsi Center at 8 p.m. ET on Sunday, March 5, 2017. Catch every moment of the game live on NBCSN.
We'll have NHL odds at BookMaker.eu available for this and every game on the NHL Sunday schedule.
Odds Analysis
This is the second game of a three-game road trip for the Blues as they were in Winnipeg on Friday and they finish up in Minnesota on Tuesday. The Blues were 13-16 in their first 29 road games with 14 games going over, 13 going under with two pushes.
St. Louis traded away defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk to Washington but the Blues are still very much in the playoff picture as they compete for a Wild Card spot. The Blues have struggled to score goals lately and that has meant a lot of close, tight games. The Blues had not scored more than two goals in any of their four games before facing Winnipeg.
“Got to find a way to score more goals,” said defenseman Alex Pietrangelo. “We’ve got find a way to get around the net, take more shots. It’s been a theme for a while. … We’ve got to do more of the the little things. I think we can be a little more aggressive. We’re sitting back a little more than we need to, especially in our own end. That, (along) with not scoring, is not really a good recipe.”
The Avalanche are coming home after completing a three-game road trip in Winnipeg on Saturday. It is tough enough to come home after a road trip and what makes it worse in this case for the Avalanche is that they will be playing with no rest.
Special Teams
The Blues are 7th in the league on the power play at 22%. They are scoring 2.8 goals per game which is 13th in the league. St. Louis is 7th on the penalty kill at 84% and they are 22nd in the league in goals against at 2.9 per contest.
The Avalanche are awful in virtually every area. They are next to last in the league on the power play at 13.6%. They are last in the league in goals per game at two per contest. They are 24th in the league in penalty killing at 77.9% while they are last in the league in goals against at 3.3 per contest.
Goalie Report
The Blues have gotten much better play lately from Jake Allen who is 22-21 with a 2.66 goals against average. He may get a break in this one so it could be backup Carter Hutton getting the start. Hutton is 9-9 with a 2.52 goals against average.
The Avalanche have Calvin Pickard as their top goalie with Semyon Varlamov out for the season due to injury. Pickard is 10-21 with a 2.88 goals against average. The backup is Jeremy Smith who is 1-3 with a 3.29 goals against average.
Free NHL Picks
The Blues have won the last three in this series with two of the three going over the total. St. Louis has won four of the last seven in Colorado with five of the seven going under.
The Avalanche look more like a minor league team than an NHL team and it is next to impossible to pick them, regardless of the situation. This game on Sunday night is one that the Blues simply have to win. I will lay the price and take St. Louis.
NHL Odds: Blues 4, Avalanche 1
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