The Columbus Blue Jackets (0-2) hit the Gateway City to face the St. Louis Blues (0-0) in a Saturday matchup at Enterprise Center. Faceoff is slated for 8 p.m. ET. Below, we analyze Tipico Sportsbook’s lines around the Blue Jackets vs. Blues, and make our expert NHL picks and predictions.
The Blue Jackets are off to a rough start after 4-1 and 5-2 losses to the Carolina Hurricanes Wednesday and Tampa Bay Lightning Friday, respectively. The sledding doesn’t get any easier with another playoff team in the Blues in the Jackets’ way.
Columbus is reeling without RW Patrik Laine, who will miss a month with an upper-body injury suffered in the Carolina loss. Newly acquired LW Johnny Gaudreau has 1 goal as his only point thus far, and he can get hot at any time.
The Blues enter the season with chips on their shoulders. The media seemingly writing them off is only going to intensify it with some national outlets questioning whether they’ll make the playoffs.
They lost RW David Perron and G Ville Husso to Detroit in the offseason and only made nominal changes to their fourth line. All-World RW Vladimir Tarasenko returns in a contract year, and the team re-signed young studs C Robert Thomas and RW Jordan Kyrou to 8-year pacts in the offseason.
The real question is which G Jordan Binnington will we have? Regular-season mode or the unstoppable version before injured last playoffs?
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Blue Jackets at Blues odds
Provided by Tipico Sportsbook; access USA TODAY Sports Scores and Sports Betting Odds hub for a full list. Lines last updated at 4:34 p.m. ET.
- Moneyline: Blue Jackets +195 (bet $100 to win $195) | Blues -250 (bet $250 to win $100)
- Puck line (PL)/Against the spread (ATS): Blue Jackets +1.5 (-117) | Blues -1.5 (-103)
- Over/Under (O/U): 6.5 (O: -115 | U: -105)
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Blue Jackets at Blues projected goalies
Elvis Merzlikins (2021-22 stats: 27-23-7, 3.22 GAA, .907 SV%, 2 SO) vs. Jordan Binnington (2021-22 stats: 18-14-4, 3.13 GAA, .901 SV%, 2 SO)
Merzlikins missed the first 2 games of the season due to illness. He was awesome down the stretch, though his record doesn’t support it. He was 5-6 with a 2.55 GAA and .926 SV% in 12 April starts. He stopped 19 of 21 shots in a 5-4 win over St. Louis last March.
Binner was 7-7-2 with a 3.13 GAA at Enterprise last season, and he was particularly strong last October. He was 5-1 with a 2.52 GAA and .926 SV% in the opening month last year. He was 4-1 with a 1.72 GAA and .949 SV% in the playoffs before suffering a season-ending knee injury. If that never happens, we could be talking about the Blues as Stanley Cup champs.
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Blue Jackets at Blues picks and predictions
Prediction
Blues 5, Blue Jackets 2
Moneyline
The Blues were 26-10-5 at home last season, and they’re still returning six 20-goal scorers. They’ll be fine lighting the lamp, and their athletic blue line moves the puck well. Binnington is the real wild card, but it shouldn’t matter in this one.
However, there’s too much juice on the Blues, so let’s go with BLUES OVER 3.5 TOTAL GOALS (-130) REGULATION TIME.
Puck line/Against the spread
Columbus is just 5-21 lifetime in St. Louis. The Blue Jackets would have more of a chance if Laine were able to play as he has 16 goals, 5 assists and a plus-minus of +9 in 17 games against the Blues in his career. The Blues were 27-20 on the puck line at home last season, and at close to even money, I’ll LEAN BLUES -1.5 (-103).
Over/Under
I’d much rather wait for the puck to drop to take an Over 5.5 because the Blues were a dominant 2nd-period team last season. That’s where the value was. The Over is 4-1-1 in the last 6 meetings between these teams, and Binnington has some proving to do in net.
LEAN OVER 6.5 (-115).
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