Minnesota Wild vs. St. Louis Blues Game 4 Preview
Where: Scottrade Center — St. Louis, Missouri
When: Sunday, April 19, 2017 – 9:00 PM ET
Line: Minnesota Wild (-115) at St. Louis Blues (-105); total: 5.0 – view all NHL lines
TV Broadcast(s): NBC / RSN / TVA
NHL News and Predictions
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Betting on the Minnesota Wild (-1.5)
Welp, they are at it again – new coach, but same old results. The 3-1 loss in Game 3 puts the Wild on the brink of another early elimination. This is bound to be their fifth-straight consecutive pre-Conference Finals exit after a strong campaign.
Adding injury to insult, of course, is their former coach Mike Yeo being on the other end, guiding their opponents through the beating.
Devyn Dubnyk is actually serviceable in anchoring the defense. He’s been consistent in maintaining a .920-plus save percentage, both in the regular season and postseason, tallying 72 saves in the 78 shots he has faced in the series.
The problem is on offense, which is similar to what has occurred in years past. Outside of Zach Parise scoring a goal in each of the last two contests, the team has been firing blanks. Top scorers Eric Staal, Mikael Granlund, Nino Niederreiter, and Jason Zucker, who all have 20-plus goals and 47-plus points on the season, are yet to find the back of the net in their combined 34 shots.
Betting on the St. Louis Blues (+1.5)
With the Blues losing in the last two series where they jumped to a 2-0 lead, they made sure Sunday they’ll lower the odds of them choking such such leads again.
Much of the commanding presence versus one of the league’s best offenses can be credited to Jake Allen’s superb start to the postseason. The fourth-year goalie has saved 114 of the 117 shots he has faced in the series (.971 save percentage), and we can easily expect him to do the same for Game 4.
Allen and the entire defense has changed immensely upon coach Mike Yeo’s arrival last February. In 35 games with Yeo (reg. season and playoffs), the Blues have held opponents to one goal or less 17 times, four of which were against the Wild.
Offensively, although main option Vladimir Tarasenko hasn’t scored in any of his 12 attempts in the last three outings, a couple his teammates have been filling in well. Jaden Schwartz has contributed one goal each in Games 2 and 3, while Joel Edmundson, a second-year defenseman who only has three goals all year, now has two the series.
Writer’s Prediction
The Blues (-105) close it out, 4-3.
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