The Minnesota Wild and St. Louis Blues meet Thursday night for the eighth time this year to finish off the regular season. The Blues have won five of the seven prior matchups, including three of four over the last couple of weeks and a 4-0 win on Wednesday night.
- Date/Time: May 13, 8 p.m. ET
- Arena: Enterprise Center
- TV Coverage: BSN
- Sportsbook Odds: Blues/Wild -111 | O/U 6 (Line History)
- Wild vs Blues Matchup Report
Sportsbook Odds Analysis
The game opened with even odds on both the Blues and Wild at -111 and the line had not been posted at any sportsbooks as of writing. The total opened at 6 and has moved to 5.5 with the OVER favored.
Minnesota News & Notes
The Wild have been one of the surprise teams in the NHL and wind down the regular season as one of the hottest teams in the West Division. Minnesota is 6-2-2 in its last 10 games, led primarily by a red-hot offense.
Heading into Wednesday night, the Wild had scored the second-most even-strength goals in the league over the last month with 42. Only six teams had scored more than 30 in that span. The Wild also have the 10th-most high-danger scoring chances in the last month.
The team is led by rookie sensation Kirill Kaprizov, who is well on his way to a Calder Trophy as the league’s top rookie with 27 goals and 51 points in 54 games. Kaprizov has been on fire of late with 10 points in his last six games, including four straight two-point efforts.
St. Louis News & Notes
While the Wild are almost completely healthy, the Blues were without several regulars in Wednesday’s game. Forwards Vladimir Tarasenko, Sammy Blais and Tyler Bozak and defenseman Vince Dunn were all out of the lineup. Defenseman Carl Gunnarsson and forward Oskar Sundqvist are both out for the season.
While the Blues have easily the worst record of the four playoff teams in the West Division, they head into their final game of the season on a 6-1-3 hot streak in their last 10. Captain Ryan O’Reilly has been particularly good of late for the surging Blues with 13 points in his last 10 games.
The goaltending has been better of late for the Blues as well as starter Jordan Binnington has raised his save percentage to .911 and his record to 17-14-8. He will likely get the start in the finale.
Betting Pick: Blues -111
The Blues seem to have the Wild’s number and have been able to limit Minnesota’s high-flying offense of late, including last night’s shutout. Both teams could shut down some key players before playoff time so bettors will need to monitor lineups leading up to puck drop.
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Buy Sports Picks Now- The Blues are 8-1-2 in their last 11 games vs the Wild.
- The Wild are 5th in even-strength goals this season.
- Only 4 teams have fewer even-strength goals than St. Louis.
