Sharks vs Blues NHL Spread/Handicapping
Headline: Sharks Try to Stop the Bleeding – Pay Visit to St Louis Tuesday Night
The St. Louis Blues return home on Tuesday night after a very productive road trip in which they went 3-0. Their opponent Tuesday – the San Jose Sharks who have yet to win in the month of February and are mired in their longest winless streak since 2005.
Bet On NHL Hockey Today at One of our top online sportsbooks!!!
San Jose Sharks (7-4-1-2) at St. Louis Blues (9-5-0-1)
When: 8:00 PM ET, Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Where: Scottrade Center, St. Louis, Missouri
Broadcast: NBCSN, CSN California (San Jose)
Sharks vs. Blues Betting Lines from betonline.com
San Jose Sharks +1½ -220 +138 Ov 5½ +110
St Louis Blues -1½ +190 -152 Un 5½ -121
Check out our in-house NHL Handicapper!!! Buy Razor Ray’s NHL Picks Today!
The Blues are coming off an impressive win in Vancouver Sunday night while the Sharks lost to the Blackhawks on Friday.
The Sharks are officially in one of the biggest funks of any team in the NHL – the goal scoring has completely dried up and the superstars don’t look anything like the best players on the ice.
The Sharks offense has scored just 12 goals in their last nine scoring more than two goals only once during the winless streak while being shut out twice. The power play is just 2 for its last 39 and the duo of Patrick Marleau and Joe Thornton have combined for just two points in the last eight games. Yikes!
Click here now to check out the TOP NHL Cappers at CappersPicks.com!!!
At least San Jose has been getting some solid goaltending. Antti Niemi has been very good. He has allowed just five goals in his past three appearances and has a nice 1.94 GAA and .930 save percentage in 11 games this season. But if your team doesn’t score, you ain’t gonna win!
Things are good in St. Louis – that’s for sure. Jaroslav Halak was out with injury and Brian Elliot continued his season long struggles – enter rookie Jake Allen who posted a 2.58 GAA in winning all three games on the Blues’ road trip, capped by a 28-save performance Sunday in a 4-3 shootout win over Vancouver.
He may get his first home start on Tuesday even though Halak is slated to come off IR.
Offensively the Blues have been surprisingly good in averaging 3.33 goals per game this season. There are 10 Blues with 10+ points this season in 15 games – very good balance for a team that was supposed to struggle scoring goals. [soliloquy id=”82219″]
Blues winger Alexander Steen has four goals and eight points over the past five games and Patrik Berglund is riding his second three-game goal-scoring streak of the season and leads the club with eight tallies. But they aren’t the only Blues to keep an eye on!
Betting Prediction
A few trends to consider:
• SJ are 3-14 in their last 17 vs. Central.
• Under is 9-2 in SJ last 11 overall.
• Under is 9-2 in SJ last 11 vs. Western Conference.
• Over is 13-3-2 in STL last 18 overall.
• Under is 17-6-3 in STL last 26 Tue. games.
• STL are 35-17 in their last 52 home games.
• Under is 6-1-1 in the last 8 meetings.
The San Jose Sharks “enjoyed” three days off after their latest loss and my guess is that the rest will have done them some good. The Sharks are too good to have a slump like the one they are embroiled in.
I like the Sharks to win their first game in February Tuesday night against a Blues team off a three game road trip and one that will be looking forward to another matchup on Wednesday night against Colorado.
The Blues are due for a letdown and the Sharks are due for an up-tick – they are good value at +138!
Pick: San Jose Sharks +138
