St. Louis Blues vs. Ottawa Senators: NHL Odds, Prediction
Second of two meetings between these teams, with them playing again in St. Louis next Tuesday. Last season, they split.
Blues vs Senators Betting Analysis
The Senators won the first on the road 6-4 behind two goals each from Mike Hoffman and Mark Stone. It was Ottawa’s fourth straight win in St. Louis, a franchise-best streak there. Carter Hutton was in net for the Blues and Mike Condon for Ottawa.
At the Canadian Tire Centre, the Blues won 6-0, easily one of Ottawa’s worst home efforts last season. Jake Allen was the No. 1 star with 30 saves in the shutout. Vladimir Tarasenko scored twice. The Blues had two goals in the second and four in the third. Andrew Hammond was in net for Ottawa.
Presuming it’s Craig Anderson between the pipes Thursday, he’s 4-2-0 in eight career outings vs. St. Louis with a 3.48 goals-against average and .904 save percentage. Erik Karlsson has played 11 games vs. the Blues and has two goals, five assists and is minus-5. Blues All-Star Brayden Schenn has two goals and eight assists in 18 games vs. Ottawa. Tarasenko has four goals and two assists in eight games.
The road team rather amazingly has won the past seven in this series.
St. Louis Blues
St. Louis (27-17-3) ended a three-game losing streak as it came out of its bye week and upset the Leafs in Toronto on Tuesday 2-1 in overtime. Alexander Steen tied it at 19:03 of the third and Vince Dunn won it at 1:43 of OT. Dunn was originally expected to be a healthy scratch but fellow blueliner Jay Bouwmeester left the team because his wife was giving birth. St. Louis outshot Toronto 42-31. Hutton lowered his GAA to 1.78 and SV to .942 on the season. He appears to have taken the top job from Allen. The Blues remain without one of their top forwards in Jaden Schwartz, who hasn’t played since Dec. 9 due to an ankle injury.
Ottawa Senators
Any NHL player would welcome a bye week after playing 42 games in just over three months as the Senators (15-18-9) have, but in one regard it came at the worst possible time as Ottawa appeared to finally be turning things around in winning three of its final four before the break. Those victories were over a Sharks team that likely will make the playoffs, the NHL-best Tampa Bay Lightning and an Eastern Conference contender in the Maple Leafs.
Matt Duchene got off to a slow start following his November trade from Colorado but has four goals and three assists in the past seven games. Ottawa could be without right winger Bobby Ryan for Thursday’s game if not longer. He injured his hand – a third hand injury in the past 12 months – on Jan. 9 vs. Chicago and missed the pre-break finale vs. Toronto. Ryan has five goals and 12 assists in 32 games.
