(NHL) St. Louis@Phoenix
2* Over 5 -120
The Yotes break out the new uniforms as they host the St. Louis Blues, who haven't won their season opener since 1996. Phoenix is 4-1-1 in the last 6 hosting St. Louis, but they'll have to put up some points to keep up tonight. The Blues boast a high-powered offense that scored 253 regular-season goals last year, 4th-best in the NHL, and it could have been more had Keith Tkachuk not struggled with injury. Tkachuk scored on 16.8% of his shots-on-goal, and center Pavol Demitra hit at rate of 17.6%. When linemate Scott Mellanby (19.7%) returns, they will be devastating. Demitra tallied 93 points last year, 6th-best in the NHL, but there seems to be a defensive tradeoff when he's on the ice, as evidenced by his 0 +/- rating. The Blues scored 80 goals on the power play, 3rd-best in the league. The Blues face the well-travelled Sean Burke, in net for the Yotes tonight. Burke's 2.82 GAA and .908 SP marks against the Blues are only slightly better than his 2.98 and .902 stats. As a team the Yotes allowed 3.00 goals per game in the preseason. Blues netminder Chris Osgood has fallen far since backing the Wings to the Stanley Cup in '98. He was unimpressive last year, with a 3.05 GAA and .888 SP. In Osgood's career versus Phoenix, he has a 2.99 GAA and .879 SP. Both Phoenix and St. Louis were terrible on the penalty kill last season, with 81.3% and 81.7% success rates, respectively. Although the Yotes' offense is far-less efficient than the Blues', and struggled to score in the preseason, they always seem to have success in this matchup. The over is 4-0-1 in the last 5 meetings. The winner of this matchup has scored at least 4 goals in 6 of the last 8 meetings. Expect the same tonight.
2* Over 5 -120
The Yotes break out the new uniforms as they host the St. Louis Blues, who haven't won their season opener since 1996. Phoenix is 4-1-1 in the last 6 hosting St. Louis, but they'll have to put up some points to keep up tonight. The Blues boast a high-powered offense that scored 253 regular-season goals last year, 4th-best in the NHL, and it could have been more had Keith Tkachuk not struggled with injury. Tkachuk scored on 16.8% of his shots-on-goal, and center Pavol Demitra hit at rate of 17.6%. When linemate Scott Mellanby (19.7%) returns, they will be devastating. Demitra tallied 93 points last year, 6th-best in the NHL, but there seems to be a defensive tradeoff when he's on the ice, as evidenced by his 0 +/- rating. The Blues scored 80 goals on the power play, 3rd-best in the league. The Blues face the well-travelled Sean Burke, in net for the Yotes tonight. Burke's 2.82 GAA and .908 SP marks against the Blues are only slightly better than his 2.98 and .902 stats. As a team the Yotes allowed 3.00 goals per game in the preseason. Blues netminder Chris Osgood has fallen far since backing the Wings to the Stanley Cup in '98. He was unimpressive last year, with a 3.05 GAA and .888 SP. In Osgood's career versus Phoenix, he has a 2.99 GAA and .879 SP. Both Phoenix and St. Louis were terrible on the penalty kill last season, with 81.3% and 81.7% success rates, respectively. Although the Yotes' offense is far-less efficient than the Blues', and struggled to score in the preseason, they always seem to have success in this matchup. The over is 4-0-1 in the last 5 meetings. The winner of this matchup has scored at least 4 goals in 6 of the last 8 meetings. Expect the same tonight.
