It's tough to believe the San Jose Sharks which dominated Games 2 and 3 of the Western Conference Finals are the same ones which were beaten to a pulp in Game 4. For our money, San Jose has definitively been the better of these two teams, but the St. Louis Blues are now once again favored to go to the Stanley Cup Finals having stolen back home ice advantage in this series.
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ODDS ANALYSIS
San Jose was a -152 favorite to win Game 4, so it was really disappointing for its bettors to watch the team get blown away.
The Blues will once again be favorites to win Game 5, but the margin won't be quite that large. St. Louis got the nod by -127 and -125 prices in Games 1 and 2 respectively.
GOALIE REPORT
Ken Hitchcock committed to Jake Allen in Game 4 of this series for the very first time, and after winning that game with ease, there really isn't much of a choice but to stick with him in this one.
Allen didn't have to work all that hard on Saturday night to get his team back in this series, but he was solid and only had the slight hiccup in the third period when the game was out of reach. He'll have to be big once again in what is sure to be a much better San Jose team in Game 5.
Martin Jones might've gotten yanked in Game 4, but he surely isn't going to be replaced in the long run. He only went 15-of-19 before getting the hook on Saturday night, but it was really his first awful game of this postseason.
LIVE BETTING
The difference for the Blues in Game 4 was all about their skating. They looked incredibly slow for the better part of the first three games of this series, but they were moving all over the place and finally getting pucks into the center of the San Jose defense.
Was this just a bad game for the Sharks, or is this a sign of what's to come in this series? Live bettors will certainly need to gauge that as this one wears on. Remember that St. Louis is now 18 games into these playoffs, and at some point, tired legs could take over.
QUICK PICK
The Sharks just didn't look like themselves in Game 4, and we aren't sure what was up with that. Two silly delay of games penalties cost them dearly, and allowing a shorthanded goal in the second period was devastating.
The San Jose power play has been completely out of sorts all of a sudden after being the most dominant in the league for the first month of the postseason. If Pete DeBoer can figure out how to get his big boys rolling again and jump out to a lead in Game 5, he could get control of this series once again.
We're still a little down on the Blues. Vladimir Tarasenko still hasn't had a point in this series, and Alex Pietrangelo just hasn't figured out how to get himself involved and hasn't always looked sharp defensively. You're not going to win series like this without your stars playing well, and San Jose's bigs are definitely outplaying St. Louis'.
We'll go with the Sharks as pups on Monday night.
NHL Odds: Sharks 2, Blues 1
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