NHL Odds, Preview, Prediction: Blues vs Avalanche (Wednesday, November 1)
Scott Rovak/NHLI via Getty Images. Pictured: Jakub Vrana #15 of the St. Louis Blues
Blues vs. Avalanche Odds
| Blues Odds | +205 |
| Avalanche Odds | -250 |
| Over / Under | 6.5 -107 / -114 |
Somebody's gotta score.
The St. Louis Blues and Colorado Avalanche, two teams in offensive funks that are coming off shutout losses, will be looking to ignite their scoring fuses when they face off against each other at Ball Arena in Denver on Wednesday night.
Your first instinct might be to take the under — and that's fair.
But with injuries taking hold of the Avalanche once again, here's why you should consider taking advantage of the juicy line available for the St. Louis road 'dogs.
After three games in four nights in Western Canada, the Blues have been enjoying a four-day break before finishing off this road trip in the Mile High City.
The club went home during the break to practice, regroup and take part in some Halloween shenanigans.
The Blues' hallmark early this season has been their consistent inconsistency. They've built a 3-3-1 record that has them in the mix in the Central Division, but they've yet to win — or lose — two games in a row.
After his team's 5-0 shutout loss in Vancouver last Friday, coach Craig Berube has shuffled his skaters at his two subsequent practices.
In an effort to help spark scoring, it looks like forward Jakub Vrana will draw back in on a line with Kevin Hayes after being scratched for the last two games. He had three points in the first five games of the year.
After playing 11 forwards and seven defensemen for the last couple of games, defensemen Scott Perunovich and Robert Bortuzzo have been moved to "extras" status while 23-year-old Tyler Tucker returned to the left side.
In net, Jordan Binnington looks set to make his sixth start of the year. Despite giving up five goals to the Canucks last Friday, his numbers are still solid at a .926 save percentage, 2.33 goals-against average and 2.7 goals saved above expected.
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After charging out of the gate with six straight wins to start their season, the Avalanche have now crashed back to earth — shut out 4-0 in Pittsburgh last Thursday and by the same score in Buffalo on Sunday.
Injuries are also becoming a concern.
After taking a hard push into the end boards from Kyle Okposo on Sunday, Cale Makar was absent from practice in Denver on Tuesday, and he is questionable for Wednesday's game.
The situation is the same for Bowen Byram, who has appeared in every game this season and played nearly 20 minutes in Buffalo, but he's also believed to be dealing with an undisclosed issue.
And while the Avs haven't declared a starting goaltender as of Tuesday afternoon, it appears that 24-year-old rookie Ivan Prosvetov may get his first start in a Colorado uniform. Claimed on waivers from the Arizona Coyotes on Oct. 9, the 6-foot-5 Russian has an .873 save percentage and 4.03 goals-against average in his 14 games of NHL experience with the Coyotes over three seasons.
Prosvetov's only work for Colorado to date was 8:05 of relief work behind Alexandar Georgiev for part of the third period in last week's loss in Pittsburgh. Prosvetov stopped all five shots he faced.
Blues vs. Avalanche
Betting Pick & Prediction
Wednesday's game will be the first of four meetings between the Blues and the Avalanche this season. Last year, St. Louis won the first matchup in Denver by a 3-2 score before Colorado took the three remaining games.
And while there's some space between these two teams in the standings and in most statistical categories so far this season, it wouldn't be a surprise to see a similar pattern begin on Wednesday.
Whether it's unproven Prosvetov or the possibly fatigued Georgiev in the Colorado net, the goalie will be playing behind a depleted defense that will either be without two key pieces in Makar and Byram or, at best, have them playing at less than 100%.
The Avs are better than their back-to-back shutout losses suggest, but their underlying numbers also indicated that they weren't as good as their 6-0-0 start, either — and that was something that coach Jared Bednar had raised as a concern.
So Colorado is vulnerable. And while St. Louis is also a long way from playing its best hockey, a few days to rest and reset should help, and so should Berube's line-juggling.
Look for the Blues to finally get scoring while Binnington delivers another solid outing in net.
That all adds up to an opportunity for a juicy moneyline wager for the road side. After opening at +202, FanDuel is down to +180 for the Blues, but BetRivers is still offering +215 as of this writing on Tuesday afternoon.
Pick: Blues Moneyline (+215 at BetRivers) | Play to: +190
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