The St. Louis Blues (16-11-5) finish up a five-game road trip with a Thursday date against the Minnesota Wild (20-10-1) at Xcel Energy Center. Puck drop will be at 8 p.m. ET. Below, we analyze the Blues-Wild odds and lines, with NHL picks and predictions.
The Wild and Blues are third and fourth, respectively, in the West Division. The division rivals are strangely meeting for the first of eight times this season; they’ll play seven more times between now and May 1.
The Blues are coming off a 5-2 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights Monday. They had previously won back-to-back games against the San Jose Sharks following a five-game losing skid.
The Wild just swept a two-game set against the Anaheim Ducks, including a 3-2 win Wednesday. They’ve won seven of their last nine games.
Blues atWild: Odds, spread and lines
Odds via BetMGM; access USA TODAY Sports’ betting odds for a full list. Lines last updated at noon ET.
- Money line: Blues +110 (bet $100 to win $110) | Wild -130 (bet $130 to win $100)
- Against the spread/ATS: Blues +1.5 (-250) | Wild -1.5 (+200)
- Over/Under: 5.5 (O: +100 | U: -120)
Blues at Wild: Projected starting goalies
Jordan Binnington (10-8-4, .905 SV%, 2.83 GAA) vs. Cam Talbot (8-5-1, .919 SV%, 2.50 GAA)
Binnington gave up 5 goals on 35 shots in Monday’s loss in Sin City. He is just 1-2-2 over his last five games. The 27-year-old has been marginally better on the road than at home this season with a .908 SV% and 2.75 GAA over 12 road starts.
The Wild are going straight back to Talbot after he stopped 28 of 30 shots in a win over the Anaheim Ducks Wednesday. He won back-to-back games against the Ducks to begin this week and has won four of his last five games.
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Blues at Wild: Odds, lines, predictions and picks
Prediction
Wild 3, Blues 1
Money line (ML)
The WILD (-130) are the play with the edge in the goaltending battle The Blues have also been limited to a single goal in each of their last three losses.
The upstart Wild, one of the biggest surprises of the 2021 season, are 14-4-1 since Feb. 18, when they began a five-game winning streak.
Minnesota is relying perhaps a little too heavily on its goaltending, as it sits 29th in Corsi For percentage through 31 games at a rate of 46.77% of total shot attempts at 5-on-5, but it still registers 51.25% of the full-strength scoring chances.
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Against the spread (ATS)
Give the WILD -1.5 (+200) a narrow edge in special teams play and back Minnesota to win by 2 or more goals.
Minnesota is last in the NHL in power-play percentage at just a 10.00% success rate, but St. Louis kills just 73.33% of penalties to rank 27th.
The Wild serve more penalty minutes per game, but they also draw more penalties from their opponents.
Over/Under (O/U)
Go with the UNDER 5.5 (-120) with Talbot in excellent form between the pipes.
Both teams are 17-14 against the Over/Under for the season but 2-2 over their last four games.
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