Wild vs Blues Picks, Predictions, and Odds Tonight

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14 March 2023

Wild vs Blues Picks, Predictions, and Odds Tonight

Minnesota is one of the hottest teams in the league right now, collecting a point in 13 straight games. The driving force of this has been its defense, and our NHL betting picks anticipate the Wild to shut down a sorry Blues' offense.

The Minnesota Wild will look to continue their hot streak against a struggling St. Louis Blues squad when the teams face off at Enterprise Center tonight.

Minnesota opened as a -146 road favorite, having picked up a point in 13 straight games (10-0-3). On the other hand, St. Louis has fallen well out of the playoff picture due to a 3-7-2 skid over its last 12 contests.

Keep reading to find out if Minny can keep its point streak alive in our Wild vs. Blues NHL picks and predictions for Wednesday, March 15.

Wild vs Blues best odds

Wild vs Blues picks and predictions

Minnesota can establish the longest point streak in franchise history when the team takes the ice tonight as the Wild continue to push for the top spot in the Central Division, now just three points back of the Stars.

Although Minnesota suffered a disappointing 5-4 overtime loss to lowly Arizona last time out, the Wild have benefited from some exceptional defense and goaltending during this recent hot streak. Marc-Andre Fleury will get the call between the pipes, having posted a 5-0-0 record with a sterling .957 SV% and 1.38 GAA over that span.

Kirill Kaprizov leads the Wild with eight goals during the 13-game point streak, though the star winger will be out for the next three-to-four weeks with a lower-body injury, which will definitely leave a dent in an already weak offense.

While Minnesota leads the NHL with 23 points since the run began on February 17, the Wild are only scoring 2.46 gpg — the fourth-worst mark in the league over that span — which truly illustrates how much they’ve relied on their defensive play.

The Blues are another offensively-starved team, scoring 3.06 gpg this season, which ranks 20th in the NHL. St. Louis has lost a lot of its star power too, with Ryan O’Reilly, Vladimir Tarasenko, and Ivan Barbashev all leaving ahead of the trade deadline.

Of course the Blues still have some exciting young talent in Jordan Kyrou, Ryan Thomas, and Pavel Buchnevich, but there’s a pretty drastic falloff after that top trio.

Goaltending has also been an issue for the Blues as starter Jordan Binnington has had a rough year. The former Stanley Cup champion has posted an .894 SV% to go with a 3.33 GAA through 51 appearances this season — a big reason why the Blues own the fifth-worst team defense in the NHL.

Given St. Louis’ middling offense, a red-hot Fleury in the Minnesota net, and a stout defense in front of him, I’m liking the Under on 2.5 goals for the Blues.

My best bet: Blues team total Under 2.5 (-105 at BetMGM)

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Wild vs Blues moneyline analysis

Minnesota will be without its top offensive star in Kaprizov, but it’s hard not to like the Wild as a whole given how well they’ve played during their point streak. They say defense wins championships, and Minnesota is certainly looking like a championship caliber squad right now if that’s the case.

St. Louis has actually dominated this matchup at home — defeating Minnesota in nine of the last 11 meetings at Enterprise Center — but I don’t think we can take much from historical head-to-head data given how much the Blues roster has changed over the last few weeks.

Neither team really has the offensive edge in this matchup, but there’s a clear difference in net. Fleury has been one of the hottest goaltenders in the NHL in recent weeks while Binnington has been wildly inconsistent — basically alternating between good and bad performances all season long.

A good performance from Binnington still may not be enough to keep up with Fleury right now, though, especially with how solid the Wild defense has been in front of the 38-year-old.

Wild vs Blues Over/Under analysis

The total for this matchup opened at 6.0 goals but slid down to 5.5 or lower at some books. If you can lock in at 6.0, I think the Under is the clear play tonight.

Minnesota is already one of the worst offensive teams in the league and is now without Kaprizov who’s factored on 74 of its 188 goals this season — about 40% of their offense.

The Wild will look to players like Mats Zuccarello (62 points) and Joel Eriksson Ek (49 points) to lead the charge without Kaprizov, but I wouldn’t expect them to run up the score, even against a weak Blues defense.

The Blues probably have the attacking edge tonight but they’ll be coming up against a Wild defense that’s surrendered more than two goals just once in its last 11 contests.

Minnesota — who gave up five goals to Arizona on Sunday — has generally rebounded after a poor defensive effort with the Under going 5-1 in its last six games after allowing five or more in the previous outing. That said, I’d look for it to keep the Blues' offense pretty quiet tonight.