10:40 pm
August 12

Canucks v. Blues

Who will WIN this matchup?

Vancouver Canucks (36-33-6)

St. Louis Blues (42-29-10)

 

Starting Goalies:

Jacob Markstrom (VAN): Unconfirmed

Jordan Binnington (STL): Unconfirmed

 

Current odds:

Vancouver Canucks: (+130)

St. Louis Blues: (-150)

 

• The St. Louis Blues will begin their Stanley Cup title defense against the Vancouver Canucks when their first-round playoff series begins Wednesday night in Edmonton. The Blues lost all three of their round-robin postseason games to fall into the No. 4 Western Conference playoff seed. The Canucks earned the No. 5 seed by beating the Minnesota Wild three games to one in their best-of-five qualifying series.

• During the regular-season series, the Canucks beat the Blues 3-1 in regulation and 4-3 in a shootout. The Blues won the other game 2-1 in overtime.

• The Canucks rolled over the Wild with impressive performances from Quinn Hughes (one goal, five assists), Pettersson (one goal, three assists), Bo Horvat (two goals, one assist), Brock Boeser (two goals, one assist) and Tanner Pearson (two goals, one assist). Goaltender Jacob Markstrom started all four games against the Wild and posted a 2.27 goals-against average and a .926 save percentage.

• During the regular season, J.T. Miller (three goals, one assist), Horvat (two goals), Pettersson (two assists) and Jake Virtanen (two assists) were productive against the Blues. Markstrom only faced the Blues once, losing the 2-1 overtime game.

• The Blues got two goals each from David Perron and Colton Parayko during the round-robin games. O’Reilly had three assists and Brayden Schenn and Zach Sanford had two each. Goaltender Jordan Binnington started two of the three round-robin games and posted subpar results, a 4.10 GAA and a .895 save percentage.

• During the regular-season series against the Canucks, Jaden Schwartz, Tyler Bozak and Alex Pietrangelo each had a goal and an assist. Binnington was 1-0-1 with a 1.87 GAA and a .939 save percentage.

• The Blues could be missing forwards Sammy Blais (lower-body injury) and Ivan Barbashev (paternity leave) in Game 1.

• For the Canucks, winger Micheal Ferland (unfit to play) will be out and forward Jay Beagle (lower body) is questionable.

4/10
Confidence
StreakSmarter Pick
St. Louis Blues
Previous Pick
Next Pick