The NHL postseason is officially upon us and the action gets underway with the St. Louis Blues visiting the Minnesota Wild. The Blues ended their regular season on a sour note, dropping their last two games and allowing more than five goals in both of them.
Meanwhile, the Wild ended their season on an absolute tear. They enter on a two-game winning streak and have won seven of their last eight. Will they be able to keep that hot streak going or will the Blues douse their flame?
St. Louis has a tough decision to make regarding their starting goaltender. Luckily, it isn’t because either of these goalies can’t get the job done. Rather, it is because both guys can put up good numbers.
It is all just a matter of who the Blues decide to roll with in Game 1. Ville Husso has started more often and has a 25-7-6 record along with a .919 save percentage.
Then you have Jordan Binnington, who is 18-14-4 with a .901 save percentage. On paper, it looks like Husso is an obvious choice for at least the series opener.
However, Binnington has playoff experience and Husso allowed seven goals in his final regular-season start. The Blues need one of these two to step up and secure the back end for them.
Wild Have Insane Scoring Depth
Goals have been plentiful for the Wild . Not just by one player, either, but across their roster. Minnesota had six players with over 20 goals on the season and three of them breakingoke the 30-goal mark.
Given that the Blues might be vulnerable in net, that’s a great sign for the Wild.
Kirill Kaprizov is the leader of the Wild, setting a franchise-record for most points in a single season. He’s a big key to this team scoring 3.72 goals per game, which was fifth in the NHL this season.
Blues vs Wild Head-to-Head
The Blues defeated the Wild in all three regular-season games, including a pair of overtime contests. All three were high-scoring as each team scored at least three goals and we saw no less than seven goals in each contest.
Derrick Erickson has been entrenched in sports media over the last decade. From working in fantasy sports to the sports betting side of things, he's been plugged in for quite some time. His favorite teams include the Texas Longhorns, Dallas Cowboys, and Dallas Mavericks.