St. Louis Blues vs Pittsburgh Penguins: Predictions and Odds

Where: PPG Paints Arena – Pittsburgh, PA.

When: Wednesday, December 4, 8PM EST

How (TV/Radio): NBC Sports | WFAN

St. Louis Blues (Away)

Head Coach: Craig Berube{All-Time 131-82-40 STL, PHI}

The St. Louis Blues are in luck Wednesday night because if there is one team in the league that is suffering from more injuries than they are, it’s the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Although, one may not notice the weakened Blues roster as they are currently riding a four-game losing streak.

Offense

The Blues have been without offensive all-star Vladimir Tarasenko for over a month now and it doesn’t appear to be having the effect many pundits thought it would.

St. Louis is still winning hockey games.

The defending champs have scored the seventh-most goals in the league this year and also boast the league’s seventh-best shooting percentage at 10.5 percent.

The Blues also have the edge on the power play in this matchup.

St. Louis currently ranks sixth on the power play with a success rate of 24.72 percent.

The team has combined to score 22 power-play goals.

The Blues also have a faceoff percentage of 51.3 percent, ranking them as the seventh-best in the league.

Defense

Defensively, the Blues are one of the best teams in the league. They have been for a long time.

The Blues have allowed the fifth-fewest goals against this season and the team has a combined save percentage of .921 – also the fifth-best in the league.

The team also ranks within the top-ten when it comes to the power play.

The Blues have killed off 84.1 percent of their penalties this season.

They are also great at staying out of the box entirely, averaging just over five penalty minutes per game.

Their weakness, especially against a team like Pittsburgh, however, is the number of shots they allow.

Averaging an allowance of over 31 shots against per game, the Blues have allowed the tenth-most shots against in the league.

Goaltending

In net Wednesday night for the Blues is expected to be one of last season MVPs Jordan Binnington.

Binnington has amassed a season record thus far of 13-4-4. He has a goals-against-average of 2.26, a save percentage of .926, and one shutout.

Head Coach: Mike Sullivanr{All-Time 258-157-15-61 STL, BOS}

Just as injured, if not more so than their opponents, the Penguins haven’t seen the same luck as St. Louis as the team has dropped their last two games in a row and have gone only 4-3-3 in their last ten games.

Offense

They are battered and bruised but the Penguins have a history of playing through adversity and still finding ways to score and, more importantly, win hockey games.

The Penguins actually average more goals per game than the Blues at 3.41. They have scored two more goals total this season than St. Louis and have the fifth-most goals scored in the NHL this year.

The Pens also hit the net a lot more than the Blues as Pittsburgh is ranked as the team with the fifth-most shots on net.

They have the tenth-best shooting percentage to show for it at 9.9 percent.

Their power play is the weakness here.

Sitting at just a 16.67 percent success rate with the man-advantage, the Penguins have the 11th-worst power-play unit in the league and only 13 power-play goals combined.

Defense

Luckily the Penguins are also known as a team that doesn’t take too many penalties because they have been struggling to kill them off this year.

Pittsburgh has a penalty kill percentage of 81.7, ranking them just inside the league’s top-15.

The Penguins also haven’t been getting the goaltending performances that we’ve gotten used to in the past.

Matt Murray is having one of his worst seasons and the team’s combined save percentage sits at .902 – ranking them 21st in the league.

Luckily for Pittsburgh, they allow significantly less shots per game on average, usually keeping opponents under 29.5 shots per game.

They have also allowed the eighth-fewest shots against in total this season.

Goaltending

These two teams last faced off only one week ago on November 30. The Blues dominated the Penguins on their way to a 5-2 victory.

This is a chance for both teams to showcase how deep their rosters are.

Both teams are heading into this game with significant injuries and regardless of which team wins, it will send a message to the rest of the league of their resilience and will to win.

As the season progresses and injuries accumulate, especially as part of a deep playoff run, a win Wednesday night will establish the winning team as a legitimate threat.

Questions to Answer

How significant of a role will each team’s injuries prove to be?

Both teams are missing their leading scorers as well as essentially secondary offensive stars.

Whose streak will end? St. Louis four-game winning streak or Pittsburgh’s two-game losing skid?

Will home ice play as any advantage for Pittsburgh Wednesday night?

The Penguins are 10-3-2 at home this season but they are playing a St. Louis team that is 10-2-3 when playing on the road.

St. Louis Blues Injury Report

F Alex Steen – DL (ankle)

F Vladimir Tarasenko – DL (shoulder)

F Oskar Sundqvist – DL (lower-body)

F Sammy Blais – DL (undisclosed)

F Erik Foley – IR/NR (concussion)

Pittsburgh Penguins Injury Report

F Patric Hornqvist – OUT (lower-body)

F Sidney Crosby – DL (groin)

D Brian Dumoulin – DL (ankle)

D Justin Schultz – DL (undisclosed)

F Nick Bjugstad – DL (abdomen)

F Bryan Rust – day-to-day (lower-body)

F Zach Aston-Resse – day-to-day (illness)

St. Louis Blues vs Pittsburgh Penguins – Game Odds

The latest odds for the Blues vs Penguins game are provided by bet365 NJ, DraftKings Sportsbook, and SugarHouse.

Good luck!

Moneyline