St. Louis at Columbus

The St. Louis Blues have come into the season prepared, and have been rewarded with a 5-1 start through six games. There are some concerns though, and those have been hidden by the prolific offense they have displayed through the six games. St. Louis has allowed 3 goals or more in four of the six games, and closed last season allowing 3 or more in four of their last five regular season games. That makes the tally 8 of their last 11 games, allowing 3 or more. When you contrast that to 8 in their previous 32 games, you can see the defense, and goaltending have not been sharp. The good news is that this team is scoring 4 goals per game, and have been vastly improved over a year ago. Columbus enters having scored just 6 times in four road games, but have been a lot more effective at home where they have scored seven times in three games. The problem is that they are allowing over 3 goals per contest, and the St. Louis offense is geared to exploit that. The Blues are 37-14 in their last 51 vs. a losing team, and these teams have played 10-3-1 to the OVER in the last 14 meetings here. Since last season, the Blues are 26-8 vs. losing teams. And, over the past three seasons, they are 16-4 when coming off a close home loss by one goal, so take St. Louis and the OVER.