Saturday's NHL trends are collected and ready to go for Round 2 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Let's take a look at what you should know before betting on the NHL postseason game.
One trend to note is that the BetQL NHL model has gone 113-82 (58%) on 3-star and above NHL spread picks in the past 90 days for a total return of $1,700 on $100 bets, so you'll definitely want to know who the model is picking in these awesome second-round matchups. BetQL subscribers can see more betting trends and all of our best bets, including player props, with star ratings for every game!
We have but one game on the slate for Saturday evening, and it should be a good one between the Colorado Avalanche and St. Louis Blues. The Blues took it to Colorado on their own ice on Thursday evening, winning the match 4-1 in a great effort by goaltender Jordan Binnington. After stopping 51 shots in Game 1, the Blues goaltender earned his 20th career playoff victory with a 30-save performance in Game 2. You may remember Binnington from a few years back when he led St. Louis to a 2019 Stanley Cup victory with his insane play in net during that postseason. Could we be seeing that same version of Binnington here in these playoffs? The netminder has been lights out in his starts for the Blues, and they will need him to be against a team like Colorado.
While the final score says blowout, the statistics of the game say otherwise. This was a much more even matchup than a 4-1 score, with St. Louis just barely outshooting Colorado 32-31. Both games in this series have finished under the total, breaking a six-game over streak in head-to-head matchups between the teams. The Avalanche have won. seven of their last nine games against St. Louis, but they did lose four of their last six road games to end the season.
St. Louis has been strong at home, winning eight of their last 11 games on their own ice. Don't count the Blues out of this series just yet. They may still yet have some tricks up their sleeve in order to defeat the Avalanche, who have a reputation of losing in the second round of the playoffs. With more strong performances by Binnington in net, St. Louis could definitely win this series. They now have home-ice advantage as well.