St. Louis Blues vs Calgary Flames - Predictions, Odds and Roster Notes

Where: Scotiabank Saddledome – Calgary, AB., Canada

When: Tuesday, January 28, 9 PM EST

How (TV/Radio): Fox Sports Midwest | WFAN

St. Louis Blues (Away)

Head Coach: Craig Berube{All-Time 143-88-42 STL, PHI}

The last two weeks haven’t been the kindest to the St. Louis Blues but the team still leads the Central division and ranks third overall in the entire league.

Offense

The St. Louis Blues have 155 goals this season which is good enough for eighth in the league. One-hundred and fifteen of those are at even strength and 36 of them have come on the power play.

Speaking of their power play, the defending Stanley Cup champions have the fourth-best power-play unit in the league, boasting a 25.35 percentage with the man advantage.

Although not a high-shooting team (they rank 19th in that regard), the Blues make their shots count – quality over quantity. The team has the eighth-best shooting percentage in the NHL with a 10.6 percent.

St. Louis will also have a monstrous advantage when it comes to faceoffs. The Blues have the sixth-best faceoff percentage in the league at 51.9 percent. The Flames rank 25th in that regard.

Defense

There is not much that can be improved when it comes to St. Louis’ defensive play. They have allowed the eighth-fewest goals against and have a team save percentage of .914 – the NHL’s fifth-best. They also allow significantly fewer shots against than their opponents.

However, there is one glaring disadvantage for the Blues in this matchup and it comes in the form of penalty killing. Compared to Calgary’s seventh-ranked penalty kill, the Blues are only 14th in the league with a penalty-killing percentage of 81.7.

Luckily for the Blues, they tend to play disciplined hockey and shouldn’t find themselves in the penalty box all too often. They rank fifth in the league when it comes to average penalty minutes per game at just seven minutes.

Goaltending

As expected, goaltender Jordan Binnington will get the start in net for the St. Louis Blues Tuesday night. Binnington has been having another stellar year this season and currently holds a record of 22-8-5. His goals-against average sits at 2.58 and he has a .912 save percentage with one shutout.

Head Coach: Geoff Ward{All-Time 14-7-1 CGY}

Calgary has been playing relatively better hockey as of late but most recently dropped a 5-2 loss to the Ottawa Senators, which is something you can’t be doing this late in the season if you plan to make the playoffs.

Offense

It’s no secret that Calgary will have their hands full with the St. Louis Blues. The Flames have struggled to score compared to their opponents and average just 2.6 goals per game. They rank 24th in the league when it comes to combined goals scored.

The Flames manage to put more pucks on net than the Blues and average more than 31 shots per game, but they aren’t of the same quality as the Blues as Calgary is ranked with the 26th-worst shooting percentage in the league this year.

Calgary’s power play has also struggled, ranking 22nd with 18.5 percent. They have 27 power-play goals this season and their power play unit has allowed seven shorthanded goals against this season – the second-most in the league.

Defense

Although they have Norris trophy winner Mark Giordano as their captain, the Flames defense has been exceptionally lackluster this season.

The Flames rank 18th in goals allowed and they have also allowed the fifth-most shots against. Their goaltenders have, thankfully, been the team’s best defenders and the Flames do have the ninth-best save percentage in the NHL. However, St. Louis’ is better.

They do kill penalties better than St. Louis, as mentioned earlier, but they also take a lot more as well. Calgary averages over eight minutes of penalty time per game this season.

Their penalty-killing unit does have five shorthanded goals this season, however. So when it comes to special teams, this could end up being one entertaining game.

Goaltending

In net against the St. Louis Blues for the Calgary Flames is expected to be David Rittich. Rittich has gone 19-12-5 this season. He has a GAA of 2.77 and a .913 save percentage. Rittich also has two shutouts this season.

These two teams last met earlier this season on November 21. The St. Louis Blues dominated the Flames, shutting them out by a final score of 5-0.

A win here for Calgary would be huge. Not only will it make the Blues look beatable, but the Flames are much more in need of the two points associated with a win. If they can beat the Blues, they’ll not only climb higher in the rankings but they’ll prove that they are capable of beating any team in the NHL. If St. Louis wins, well, no one would be all that surprised – even if they are on the road.

Questions to Answer

Will Calgary be able to take advantage of St. Louis’ poor penalty killing? Will players like Matthew Tkachuk be able to goad the Blues roster into taking unnecessary penalties in order to set up the man advantage for the Flames?

Will Calgary Flames forward Johnny Gaudreau show up for this game? As of recently, Gaudreau, known for his scoring prowess, has been all but effective for the Flames this season, which has been disappointing, to say the least.

Will the return of the previously injured Colton Parayko due anything to give the St. Louis Blues a boost during this minor slump?

Check out our prediction article on the potential 2020 Stanley Cup Favorites.

St. Louis Blues Injury Report

F Vladimir Tarasenko – DL (shoulder)

F Sammy Blais – DL (wrist)

F MacKenzie MacEachern – OUT (lower-body)

F Erik Foley – IR/NR (concussion)

Calgary Flames Injury Report

D Juuso Valimaki – IR/NR (knee)

St. Louis Blues vs Calgary Flames Odds

The odds for St. Louis Blues vs Calgary Flames are provided by SugarHouse NJ, DraftKings Sportsbook, and 888Sport NJ.

Good luck!