New Jersey Devils at St. Louis Blues
New Jersey is coming off their game at Yankee Stadium on Sunday, a game which I guess officially marked the beginning of the end of Martin Brodeur’s career (though that really started years ago). In the Devils’ last four games, the team has scored six power play goals and that stretch has pushed them into the top 10 in the NHL in power play efficiency. The Devils are just 1-2-2 on the road this month, though, with the only win coming in Montréal (and everyone’s been doing that lately).
St. Louis comes home for one game after their four game road trip that saw them go 3-1 (the only loss a 7-1 thumping at the hands of this very Devils team). Tonight’s starter, Jaroslav Halak, is 5-1 in his six starts since Christmas and it was Brian Elliott in net for that demolition against New Jersey. Besides Halak, Vladimir Tarasenko has been on an absolute tear lately with six goals and eight assists in 13 games since Christmas. His underlying stats were phenomenal all season long, it was just a matter of time before he broke out.
St. Louis only has seven losses in 25 home games (72-percent win rate) while the Devils have just 10 wins in 28 games away from their barn (35.7-percent win rate). If you looked at nothing else, just the home/road records tells you that St. Louis is twice as likely to win this game as the Devils. Every team lays an egg once in a while and that’s what St. Louis did in New Jersey. I don’t expect it to happen twice.
This game may not be high-scoring but I’ll have Halak in a lot of lineups.
Top RW Value |
Top LW Value |
Top C Value |
Top D Value |
Bargain Bin |
Vladimir Tarasenko (STL) $9038 |
Jaden Schwartz |
(STL) $10,579 |
Alex Pietrangelo |
Magnus Paajarvi |