St. Louis Blues vs. Colorado Avalanche Game 1 Prediction, NHL Odds
The Colorado Avalanche won the President’s Trophy in the NHL regular season and they open the Stanley Cup playoffs at home against West Division rival St. Louis on Monday. The Avs are heavy Game 1 and series favourites on the NHL odds.
Blues vs. Avalanche Betting Analysis
Colorado will have home-ice advantage for as long as they’re playing in this postseason, after co-leading the NHL with 82 points. Fellow West Division team Vegas also had 82, but the Avalanche won the tiebreaker. They are this writer’s pick to reach the Stanley Cup Final against Toronto. St. Louis finished fourth in the West Division with 63 points and actually was better on the road (15-9-4) than at home (12-11-5) this season.
The favoured exact series result is Avalanche winning in five games, while the long shot is Blues in a sweep at +3400. The favoured game and series double line is Avalanche taking both at -172.
Colorado was 5-3 versus St. Louis in the regular season. Normally, they are Central Division foes. Just two years ago, St. Louis made a very unlikely run to their first-ever Stanley Cup title. Colorado hasn’t won the Cup since 2001.
The home team has won 36 of the past 52 games in this series. The Under is 4-1 in the past five in Denver.
St. Louis Blues
St. Louis closed the season with three straight wins, outscoring their opponents 13-4, but don’t take too much from that because neither the Kings (eliminated) nor Wild (locked into playoff seeding) had anything to play for. David Perron led St. Louis with 58 points this season, while Ryan O’Reilly led with 24 goals. It’s not clear if Perron will play Game 1 though, as he was put on the COVID list over the weekend. He was the first point-per-game player for St. Louis since Pavol Demitra scored 93 points in 78 games in 2002-03. Perron had seven points agaionst the Avs this year. There is no goaltender timeshare on this team, as Jordan Binnington (18-14-8, 2.65 GAA, .910 SV) is the clear No. 1. The Richmond Hill, Ontario, native was 3-4-0 versus Colorado this year, with a 2.89 GAA and .909 SV. The Blues are 3-8 in their past 11 on the road.
Colorado Avalanche
The best line in hockey is arguably Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon, Gabriel Landeskog and Mikko Rantanen. That trio has an absurd expected goals percentage of 66 at 5-on-5. Rantanen led the team with 66 points and 30 goals in 52 games. MacKinnon had 20 goals and 65 points in 48 games and Landeskog finished with 20 goals and 52 points in 54 games. The Avs also have one of the league’s top young players in 22-year-old blueliner Cale Makar. He had eight goals and 44 points in 44 games. Colorado’s clear-cut No. 1 goaltender is Vezina candidate Philipp Grubauer (30-9-1, 1.95 GAA, .922 SV). He was 2-1-0 with a 1.68 GAA and .938 SV vs. the Blues. The Avalanche went 16-0-1 in their final 17 home games, the longest home point streak by any team this season. Colorado’s 22 home wins tied for the most in the NHL. They’re 6-1 in their past seven Monday games.
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