St. Louis Blues at New York Rangers
The Blues suffered their worst defeat of the season on Tuesday, a 7-1 loss in New Jersey. That game was what is called a schedule loss, or pretty much any team has to play back-to-back games on the road (as the Blues were on Monday-Tuesday). I would be a bit more wary about fading the Blues here tonight; typically, good teams get angry when they get embarrassed like that – Chicago had two losses in mid-November by 4+ goals, they won the next two games respectively by 4 and 3; both times Los Angeles has lost by four goals, they’ve rebounded with a win – and I expect St. Louis to be much better tonight.
The Rangers are on a pretty good streak of their own, having gone 7-3-1 in 2014 (6-2 in their last eight games), even though they lost their last time out 5-3 to the Islanders. One positive was that it did mark the eighth time in 10 games this team scored at least three goals. Goal scoring was a big concern for this team as recently as a month ago, but a bump in shooting percentage and a killer power play (25-percent in those 10 games) can go a long way. Also, it doesn’t hurt when Rick Nash has nine goals in his last nine games.
These two teams met back in the second week of the season when the Rangers were still on their crazy road trip, a 5-3 win for the Blues. I wouldn’t read too much into that game except for that the Rangers managed three goals against the Blues in St. Louis, something that has happened to them just seven times this year. The Rangers actually match up quite well with St. Louis and tonight should be a good game.
I won’t be taking either goalie, but will lean to some players on both sides as this could easily be a 4-3 game either way.
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Top RW Value |
Top LW Value |
Top C Value |
Top D Value |
Bargain Bin |
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David Backes |
Chris Kreider |
Derek Stepan $9700 |
Dan Girardi $7800 |
Vladimir Sobokta $7000 |
