The San Jose Sharks were absolutely dominant on both sides of the ice on Tuesday night against the St. Louis Blues. Few could argue with the fact that they've been the better of the two teams through two games, but Game 3 could change everything and will give one of these teams a 2-1 series lead in the Western Conference Finals.
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ODDS ANALYSIS
We said right at the outset of this series that the home team was going to be favored by about a -120 margin in all of these games, and so far, that's held true. The Blues were -127 and -117 favorites in Games 1 and 2, and we suspect San Jose will end up holding right around -120 in Game 3 now that the series has shifted back to the SAP Center.
The declining total is the only thing to watch. We're still one more really low-scoring game away from this total dipping to potentially 4.5, but the vig on the under 5 continues to get larger and larger.
GOALIE REPORT
The defense in front of Martin Jones has been absolutely spectacular in these playoffs. Specifically in these last three games, Jones has been faced with an average of just 23.0 shots per game, and in the playoffs, you're going to win a lot of games when that's all your goalie has to do.
Jones turned aside all 26 shots he faced on Tuesday night in what will probably be one of the easiest shutouts of his career, but the time is going to come when he has to make some huge saves in this series.
Brian Elliott really wasn't at fault for the three goals he allowed in Game 2. Yes, he only faced 23 shots for the game, but he also was peppered, particularly when San Jose was on the power play.
We've talked about how awesome this San Jose power play is all series long, and that rang true with two goals in Game 2. Elliott only faced 18 even strength shots in the whole game, and he stopped 17 of the 18.
LIVE BETTING
At the outset of this series, Peter DeBoer said that the Blues take a lot of penalties because of their aggression, and that's where they're going to come up with their opportunities to score.
That's exactly how this has played out.
Troy Brouwer took a couple of really silly penalties on Tuesday night which led to a pair of San Jose power play goals.
The frustration for St. Louis is coming from its inability to get really good offensive zone time. For two games, the Blues have lost the territorial game. They still found a way to net a couple goals against Jones in Game 1. They had no such luck in Game 2. Ken Hitchcock has a lot of coaching to do between now and Thursday if the Blues are going to figure out how to get some quality chances to the front of the net.
QUICK PICK
At this point, we're willing to say we think the Sharks are winning this series in five games. San Jose has definitively been the better of these two teams, and there are a lot more questions than answers coming out of the St. Louis camp.
Will this team stop taking frustration penalties in Game 3? Will it figure out how to put pressure on Jones? And where the heck has Vladimir Tarasenko been in these first two games? If there aren't positive answers for those questions, the Blues are in a lot of trouble.
NHL Odds: Sharks 2, Blues 0
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