I honestly thought the Blues had a chance in this series until Jordan Binnington was injured last game and ruled out for the series. Ville Husso is more than talented enough to fill his shoes but he just doesn’t have the playoff experience. I think he is able to steal a game at home here as the Blues have played pretty well overall this series. He has been much better at home throughout the season and the Avs were much worse on the road. As I have mentioned before, the Avs have also yet to make a conference final with this team losing in the second round in three straight seasons. When they lost last season, they were up 2-0 in the series before losing four straight to the Knights. If the Blues can put just a little doubt in the Avs heads, they will pull out this game and make it a series. Take the Blues at home at plus money.

My model says the Blues cover the spread in well over 70 percent of the simulations, so you're getting excellent value with them at this number. Yes, St. Louis will be without G Jordan Binnington (lower body) for the rest of the series, but it has two of the top goal scorers of the postseason in captain Ryan O'Reilly and David Perron, who are tied for second in the league with seven apiece. O'Reilly has been held without a tally only twice in seven playoff games. Perron has posted three multi-goal performances this postseason, including one in Game 2 of this series. Take the Blues +1.5 goals at -170.