David Backes and the Boston Bruins visit the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday night on NBCSN. This will be an interesting contest as Backes returns to the city where he spent the first 10 years of his NHL career. Backes and the Bruins are in second place in the Atlantic Division while the Blues are in third place in the Central. This will be the second meeting between the teams this season as the Blues won 4-2 in Boston in November.
This war on the ice will go down Tuesday, January 10, at 8 p.m. ET at the Scottrade Center. The game will be televised live on NBCSN.
We'll have NHL odds at BookMaker.eu available for this and every game on the NHL Tuesday schedule.
Odds Analysis
This is the third game of a four-game road trip for the Bruins. They won the first game of the trip on Saturday by a score of 4-0 in Florida. They were in Carolina on Sunday and had Monday off. The Bruins were 12-11 in their first 23 road games with 7 going over, 13 going under with 3 pushes.
The Blues are completing a six-game homestand on Tuesday. They are 3-2 in the previous five games, the last of which was a 4-3 win over Dallas on Saturday. The Blues are 16-8 at home this season with 9 going over, 8 going under with 7 pushes.
"We have to treat Tuesday’s game like we have that hunger to get another win. It’s gonna be important for us to do that because Boston’s a team that can catch us if we’re not ready for them.” said Kevin Shattenkirk. “Obviously David (Backes) is coming back to town, so he’s gonna want to have a big showing, but we have to put all that aside and try to get a winning streak going here."
Special Teams
The Bruins have struggled on the power play for most of the season as they are just 25th in the league at 14.6%. The Bruins are scoring just 2.4 goals per game. They are giving up 2.4 goals per game with the top penalty killing unit in the league at 87.9%. Boston has been a good team to bet under the total this season which makes senses considering their poor offense and solid defense.
The Blues have a potent power play that is 7th in the league at 21.9%. They are scoring 2.8 goals per game on the season. The Blues have also been very good on the penalty kill at 4th in the league at 85.8% but St. Louis is still allowing 2.9 goals per game which is just 24th in the league.
Goalie Report
The Bruins are all about Tuukka Rask in goal as he played in 32 of the first 35 games with Zane McIntyre playing in only three games and going 0-2 with a 4.04 goals against average. Rask is 20-12 with a 1.93 goals against average.
The Blues starter is Jake Allen who is 17-13 with a 2.63 goals against average while the backup is Carter Hutton who is 4-6 with a 2.93 goals against average.
Free NHL Picks
The Blues have won 7 of the last 10 in this series with three of the last four going over the total. St. Louis has taken 6 of the last 10 at home in this series with five of the last six going over.
This is a good spot for the Blues who have had a couple days off to get ready for this contest while the Bruins have had just one day off. St. Louis has been really good at home this season while Boston has been so-so on the road. The trends also support the Blues so I will take St. Louis to get the win and also play the game over the total.
NHL Odds: Blues 4, Bruins 3
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