The St Louis Blues are set to visit the Colorado Avalanche for Game 2 of their best-of-seven series tonight, with the Avs boasting a 1-0 series lead.
Below, you can look at the loan Western Conference matchup on tonight’s NHL slate and at some of our best bets on the FanDuel Sportsbook.
St Louis Blues (+190) vs Colorado Avalanche (-235) Total: 7 (O+116/U-142)The St Louis Blues were able to keep things close on the scoreboard in Game 1, before falling 3-2 in overtime thanks to a Josh Manson game-winner. The score was much more flattering to the Blues than their actual play on the ice was, where they were outshot 54-25 in the game, and 13-0 in overtime.
Jordan Binnington was the only reason that Game 1 was close, as he stopped a whopping 51-of-54 shots in net. The problem is, if he can’t continue to play at that level for St Louis, it’s hard to see them keeping this series close against a Colorado Avalanche team that are clearly on a mission.
You can make the case the Avs should have won Game 1 by multiple goals and that can either be good news for the Blues or bad news, depending on how you look at it. Colorado played a great game and it’s going to be hard to play to that standard for the entire series against a St Louis team that has one of the deepest forward groups in the NHL.
If the Blues don’t manage to even up the series tonight before heading home, it’s difficult to see a scenario where they won’t be on the brink of elimination coming back to Colorado for Game 5. This Game 2 ultimately has to be the best effort of the postseason for the Blues. Their core has been in these types of games before, which is why we’re not shying away from the moneyline, especially with the immense value at +190.
The total tonight is high after only seeing five goals scored in Game 1, but that shouldn’t be a huge surprise with how deep both of these clubs are on offense. Colorado did a very good job of limiting the Blues in the first matchup, as the Avs are such a good possession team, that the Blues just didn’t have the puck a lot in Game 1. St Louis is going to need Binnington to continue showing up for them and if he plays as he has in the postseason since taking over for Ville Husso, the number should stay under the total of seven.
Best Bets: Blues moneyline (+195), Under 7 (-142)
