A couple of teams squaring off for the first time this season, the San Jose Sharks and the St. Louis Blues face off at the Enterprise Center. The match gets started at 8 p.m. ET on Friday, November 9, and you’ll be able to view this Western Conference matchup live on NBC Sports California.
San Jose Sharks at St. Louis Blues Odds
San Jose is 8-8 straight up (SU) and has lost 3.8 units for moneyline bettors thus far. Through 16 regular season matches, nine of its games have gone over the total, while six have gone under and none have pushed. As the away team this season, the Sharks are 4-5 SU.
San Jose has converted on 20.0 percent of its power play chances this season, a figure that’s right around league average. On the other hand, it has the third-best penalty kill in the league, and it’s successfully killed off 86.8 percent of all penalties.
San Jose, as a collective unit, has been penalized 3.9 times per game this season, and 2.6 per game over its past five match ups. The team has had to kill penalties just 8.7 minutes per game over their last 10 outings.
Sporting a .893 save percentage and 23.8 saves per game, Martin Jones (7-5-1) has been the best option in goal for San Jose this season. Jones played last night, however, so the team might decide to rest him and roll with Aaron Dell instead (1-3-2 record, .913 save percentage, 2.71 goals against average).
Brent Burns and Timo Meier will both lead the offensive attack for the visiting Sharks. Burns (20 points) has tallied three goals and 17 assists, and has recorded two or more points in six different games. Meier has 12 goals and five assists to his name (and has logged at least one point in 11 games).
St. Louis is 5-8 straight up (SU) and has lost 4.8 units for moneyline bettors this year. Through 13 regular season matches, eight of its games have gone over the total, while four have gone under and just one has pushed. It’s 4-5 SU as the home team this year.
St. Louis has converted on 31.4 percent of its power play opportunities this year, a figure that places it in the top-5 among NHL teams. On the other hand, its penalty kill is ranked 16th overall, and it’s successfully killed off 80.0 percent of all penalties.
The Blues have been penalized 4.0 times per game this season. Last year, that number was at 3.3, the third-lowest mark in the league. After serving an average of 7.7 penalty minutes per game a year ago, the team’s been forced to kill penalties for 8.5 minutes per outing this season.
Jake Allen has denied 27.2 shots per game as the top choice in goal for St. Louis. Allen has four wins, seven losses, and three overtime losses and has maintained a fairly-weak .879 save percentage and 3.99 goals against average this season.
Ryan O’Reilly (seven goals, 12 assists) will lead the attack for the Blues.
San Jose Sharks at St. Louis Blues Betting Predictions
Free NHL Pick: SU Winner – Blues, O/U – Under
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Notes
Betting Trends
For both of these teams, the over has hit in four of their past five outings.
The Sharks are 6-4 when they outshoot their opponent by 10 or more. They’ve averaged the league’s third-most shots on goal (36.7) and St. Louis’s attempted just the 25th-most (30.2).
The Sharks are 3-2 SU in games where they serve more penalty minutes than their opponent while the Blues are 1-2 SU when they spend more time in the box than their opponent.
After posting a 5-3 record in games decided by a shootout last year, San Jose is off to a 0-2 start in shootouts this season. St. Louis was 3-0 in shootouts last year and has yet to participate in one this time around.
San Jose has created 9.0 takeaways per game over its last five road games, an improvement over its season average of 7.4 takeaways per game (ranked 15th in the league).
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