The Minnesota Wild may have lessened the bleeding, but the team that once looked like it was going to run away with the Western Conference still is searching for its form. Minnesota closed the season out with four straight wins, but three of the four were against the two worst teams in the league and the fourth was against a non-playoff team in Carolina. The Wild are just 2-6 in their last eight games against other playoff teams and that bodes well for their first-round opponent, the St. Louis Blues.
Log on to BookMaker online for all the latest NHL puck-lines, totals, moneylines, and props. BookMaker Sportsbook provides the earliest NHL odds and is your one stop shop for all your betting needs. The Minnesota Wild and St. Louis Blues will clash with a trip to the Western Conference semis on the line. You can watch all the action on the NBC family of networks.
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Series Schedule
Game 1: St. Louis at Minnesota (4/12, 9:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN)
Game 2: St. Louis at Minnesota (4/14, 8 p.m. ET, NBCSN)
Game 3: Minnesota at St. Louis (4/16, 3 p.m. ET, NBC)
Game 4: Minnesota at St. Louis (4/19, 9:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN)
Game 5: St. Louis at Minnesota (If Necessary, 4/22, TBD)
Game 6: Minnesota at St. Louis (If Necessary, 4/24, TBD)
Game 7: St. Louis at Minnesota (If Necessary, 4/26, TBD)
Key Players
All eyes will be on Jake Allen for this series. Allen has been a roller coaster of a goaltender these last two seasons, getting replaced by Brian Elliott in the postseason last year and struggling through much of this season before Ken Hitchcock was fired and replaced by Mike Yeo. In March, Allen was as rock solid as they come, giving up just 15 goals in 11 games, and posted an 8-1-2 record in that span. Perhaps most impressive was his save percentage, which was a sky high .953.
The blue line duo of Ryan Suter and Jared Spurgeon was one of the top pairings in the NHL this season. Suter and Spurgeon finished the season with the highest and the second-highest plus/minus ratings in the NHL at a plus-34 and a plus-33 and have allowed Devan Dubnyk to flourish as both log a ton of ice time. However, that pairing might have something to worry about as Spurgeon has missed the last two games with a lower-body injury. Whether or not sitting him was precautionary, not having Spurgeon for this series would be a huge blow.
Key Stats
Of all the teams that changed their coach during the season, it worked best for the Blues. Since replacing Hitchcock with Yeo, the Blues have gone 21-8-2 and the defense has improved markedly. In that stretch, St. Louis has given up fewer goals than any other team in the league when beforehand the Blues were allowing the third-most in the NHL.
Devan Dubnyk looked like he was well on his way to the Vezina Trophy before Minnesota’s breakdown. For most of the season, Dubnyk had a sub-2.00 GAA, but that shot through the roof after a March in which he gave up 36 goals in 14 appearances. It’s no wonder that the Wild won just 3 of those games and gave way to the Blackhawks in the West.
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The good news for St. Louis is that its coach is intimately familiar with its opposition in the first round. Mike Yeo was behind the bench for most of five seasons and led the Wild to the postseason in three of those years. Like many other teams in the West, his sin was being unable to beat Chicago in the postseason, but he knows this Minnesota team and its style of play very well and that will give the Blues an edge.
Although the Blues are without Robby Fabbri and may be missing Paul Stastny as well, the defense is solid enough that they can win this series. Vladimir Tarasenko showed us what he can do in the postseason last year with 15 points in 20 games and look for him to lead the Blues past the Wild.
NHL Playoff Series Odds: Blues win the series 4-2
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