By David Perron, Ryan O’Reilly, and the St. Louis Blues will do battle against Mika Zibanejad, Artemi Panarin, and the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden for an East-West showdown. The match gets underway at 7 p.m. ET on Tuesday, March 3 and it’s being televised live on Fox Sports Midwest.
St. Louis Blues at New York Rangers Odds
The Blues (-145) are being tabbed as the favorites over the Rangers (+125), and the Over/Under (O/U) is placed at an even 6 goals (-110 for the over, -110 for the under) at Borgata Sports.
St. Louis is 39-27 straight up (SU) and has earned moneyline bettors 4.9 units this season. 33 of its games have gone over the total, while 31 have gone under and just two have pushed. As an away team in 2019-20, the Blue Notes are 16-16 SU.
St. Louis enters the match up with the third-best power-play unit in the NHL, as it’s converted on 24.1 percent of its extra-man chances this season. On the other hand, its penalty kill is ranked 18th out of 31 teams, and it has successfully killed off 79.7 percent of its penalties..
Boasting a .910 save percentage and 25.9 saves per game, Jordan Binnington (29-18-7) has been the primary option in goal for St. Louis this year. If it chooses to rest him, however, head coach Craig Berube could turn to Jake Allen (10-12-3 record, .922 save percentage, 2.31 goals against average).
On the other side of the rink, New York is 35-30 straight up (SU) and has earned moneyline bettors 12.8 units this year. Through 65 regular season contests, 32 of its games have gone over the total, while 31 have gone under and just two have pushed. It’s 17-16 SU as the home team this year.
The Rangers have converted on 23.4 percent of their power play chances this year, a figure that’s good enough for sixth-best in the NHL. On the other hand, its penalty kill is ranked 20th overall, and it’s successfully killed off 78.6 percent of all penalties.
Alexandar Georgiev (28.8 saves per game) has been the top option in goal for the Rangers. Georgiev has 16 wins, 15 losses, and one overtime loss to his name and has maintained a .912 save percentage and 3.02 goals against average this year.
St. Louis Blues at New York Rangers Free Picks
Prediction: SU Winner – Blues, O/U – Over
Betting Trends
Power-play opportunities could be key in tonight’s game. The Blues are 16-7 in games where they serve fewer penalty minutes than their opponent and 31-18 when they serve fewer than 10 total penalty minutes. The Rangers are 12-10 when they serve fewer penalty minutes than the opposition and 17-13 in games where they’re in the box for less than 10 minutes.
St. Louis is 2-3 in games decided by a shootout this season while New York is 1-2 in shootouts.
For both of these teams, the over has hit in four of their last five matchups.
One of the best at taking care of the puck, St. Louis is ranked third this season with just 7.5 giveaways per game. That figure has trended down, however, as the team’s averaged 6.2 giveaways over its last 10 games and 5.6 giveaways over its last five.
New York is ranked 30th this season with 12.5 giveaways per game. That figure has trended lower lately, however, as it’s averaged 10.4 giveaways over its last 10 games and 10.6 giveaways over its last five.
