Happy Halloween, hockey fans! Welcome back to NHL Predictions. Each day, Last Word on Hockey takes a look at the games that are scheduled and offers insight and analysis to help predict who will be victorious in head-to-head matchups. We know your day may be busy with spooky-season celebrations, from trick-or-treating to bobbing for apples. We also know some of you may be playing your Mariah Carey Christmas album while putting up the Christmas Tree. You know who you are, but we do not judge here! We thank you for taking time out of a busy day while we take a look at the St. Louis Blues and the Philadelphia Flyers game on Halloween night.
NHL Predictions
St. Louis Blues vs. Philadelphia Flyers
Time: 7:00 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT)
TV: FanDuel Sports Network Midwest; NBC Sports Philadelphia; ESPN+
The Blues and Flyers meet Halloween night for their first matchup of the season. Last season, the teams split the series with each team winning on the road. The all-time series is currently in favour of the Flyers, 95-58-17-1.
While the Blues and Flyers are currently in separate conferences, there is a bit of a history between the two teams. In 1968, the Blues defeated the Flyers in the playoffs en route to reaching the Stanley Cup Final in their inaugural season. Craig Berube played and coached for the Flyers and later coached the Blues, winning the Stanley Cup in 2019. Earlier in that 2019 season, rookie Jordan Binnington shut out the Flyers in his first NHL start (the same day the “Gloria” tradition started with the Blues). Last but not least, Hall of Famer Chris Pronger spent multiple years with both the Blues and Flyers.
Blues Hoping for Treats and not Tricks
The Blues are coming off their worst game of the season on Tuesday. The Blue Note lost 8-1. Nothing went right for the time. Joel Hofer gave up five goals before being pulled. The Blues could not get out of Ottawa fast enough.
The Blues will look to rebound from that ugly game. Thankfully, they have the opportunity just 48 hours later. However, the Blues will need players to step up. The team is still dealing with injuries, with Robert Thomas and Nick Leddy still on injured reserve. The team would especially like to see rebounds from forwards Pavel Buchnevich and Brayden Schenn. Both simply did not look good on Tuesday. Both had costly mistakes that led to the puck in the back of the Blues net. Bad games happen. Everyone has them. However, the great players and great teams are able to bounce back from bad games. Can the Blues do that? Who can step up and help it happen?
After a bad game between the pipes, it may not be a bad idea to get Hofer back in goal and get back on track. Up until Tuesday, Hofer was having a great start to the season. Furthermore, he is still young. It might benefit his confidence to put him right back in.
Flyers Could Use a “Little Bit of Hocus Pocus”
The Flyers are 3-6-1 on the season. For a team that nearly made the playoffs a season ago, this is a rough start. The team has struggled to produce on offence. Forward Travis Konecny is the only one who has been consistently recording points. Goaltending has been a struggle as well, with no goalie having a goals against average under 3.00 and a save percentage above .900. The Flyers are not scoring and they are not stopping the puck from going into their net.
The good news? The Flyers won their last game. That is something to build on heading into Thursday night. There are still problems that need to be fixed, but going into a game following a 2-0 win is a lot better than heading into a game following an 8-1 loss.
Prediction
The Flyers are looking to keep the momentum going from Tuesday. The Blues are hoping they left the ugliness in Ottawa. It is hard to decide who to pick, but we are going to go with the home team.
Flyers win, 3-1.
Prop Bets
The over/under from FanDuel is 5.5 goals. We are betting under that for this game.
For prop bets, we like Travis Konecny has the first goal scorer at +1000. For the Blues, we like Dylan Holloway as an anytime scorer at +470. He currently leads the Blues in goals.
Main Photo Credit: Eric Hartline-Imagn Images
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