Florida Panthers vs St. Louis Blues Prediction: Best Bet for Saturday
Florida arrives in St. Louis without Aleksander Barkov and Brad Marchand, and the Blues counter with one of the best goaltending lines on the Saturday slate in Joel Hofer. The first meeting of the season is really a test of how much of Florida's game survives its injury list.
The Matchup
Florida is 11-7-2, scoring 3.25 goals per game and allowing 3.00, a +0.25 differential. Sam Reinhart leads the Panthers with 11 goals, and Matthew Tkachuk has 24 assists and 28 points, so the creation survives even a long injury list. Florida is 6-5-2 on the road and has won three of its last five, including a 5-4 win over Detroit on Thursday and a 4-1 win at Columbus. This is the first meeting of the season with St. Louis.
St. Louis is 9-8-2, scoring 2.79 per game and allowing 2.89 for a -0.11 differential. Jimmy Snuggerud leads the Blues with 10 goals and 14 points, and Robert Thomas has 11 assists. The Blues are 5-2-1 at the Enterprise Center and shut out Utah 1-0 in a shootout on Thursday. St. Louis defends its building well and scores just enough, which makes Saturday a style fight: Florida's volume against a home team comfortable winning 2-1.
Key Factors
Florida's absences are the biggest names in the game, so they come first. Aleksander Barkov is out tonight. He is on long-term injured reserve with a lower body injury. Brad Marchand is out tonight.
He is on injured reserve with a leg injury. Jonah Gadjovich is also out tonight on long-term injured reserve. A Panthers team without Barkov and Marchand loses its best two-way center and its loudest scorer, and what remains has to win on structure: Florida kills 86.3 percent of its penalties, one of the best marks on the slate, and converts 23.8 percent on the power play against a St. Louis kill of 86.0 percent.
The Blues' case starts in net. Joel Hofer is at 2.15 and .926 for St. Louis, one of the finest lines on the Saturday slate, while Jordan Binnington is at 4.27 and .851 behind him, so the Blues' night depends heavily on which version of their crease shows up. Florida's Jacob Markstrom is at 2.56 and .900, with Akira Schmid at 3.10 and .883. St. Louis is missing Torey Krug, who is out tonight on long-term injured reserve with an ankle injury, plus Tyler Tucker and Dillon Dube, both out tonight.
The St. Louis case is Hofer, home ice, and Florida's injuries, and it is strong. It fails on depth over sixty minutes: Florida still creates through Tkachuk and Reinhart on separate lines, kills penalties at an elite rate, and has won on the road all season with this exact next-man-up shape.
Florida's depth and penalty kill travel better than St. Louis's home form, even with the Panthers this short-handed. Take the Florida Panthers moneyline at -115.
Game Information
| Date | Saturday (11/14) |
|---|---|
| Start Time | 6:00 PM CT |
| How to Watch | NHL |
| Venue | Enterprise Center |
| Total | 5.5 |
| Moneyline | Florida Panthers -115 |
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