{"id":461802,"date":"2025-01-31T08:00:32","date_gmt":"2025-01-31T13:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=461802"},"modified":"2025-01-30T20:54:35","modified_gmt":"2025-01-31T01:54:35","slug":"nhl-predictions-january-31st-st-louis-blues-vs-colorado-avalanche","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/01\/31\/nhl-predictions-january-31st-st-louis-blues-vs-colorado-avalanche\/","title":{"rendered":"NHL Predictions: January 31st St. Louis Blues Vs. Colorado Avalanche"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome to another edition of NHL Predictions! It is the last day of January. The NHL has four games on the schedule today. As always, we will go around the league and examine each game, concluding with our prediction. Today’s prediction covers the game between the <\/span>St. Louis Blues<\/span><\/a> and the <\/span>Colorado Avalanche<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

NHL Predictions<\/span><\/h2>\n

St. Louis Blues vs. Colorado Avalanche<\/span><\/h3>\n

Time:\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>9:00 P.M. Eastern Time<\/span><\/p>\n

TV:\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>FanDuel Sports Network Midwest, Altitude Sports TV<\/span><\/p>\n

The Blues and Avalanche are meeting for the first time this season. Last season, the Avalanche won three of four games. However, the game the Blues won saw two players, Pavel Buchnevich<\/a> and Brayden Schenn<\/a>, recording a hat trick in the 8-2 route. The <\/span>unique feat<\/span><\/a> was just the third occurrence in Blues history. Doug Gilmour<\/a> and Mark Hunter<\/a> did it on February 23, 1986. Prior, Kevin LaValle and Dave Barr<\/a> combined for hat tricks on October 20, 1984.<\/span><\/p>\n

Blues Story<\/span><\/h4>\n

The\u00a0<\/span>Blue Note\u00a0<\/span><\/em>enter play on Friday looking to end a two-game losing streak. Furthermore, despite their inconsistencies this month<\/a>, they are looking to end January on a positive note. The team has not played since <\/span>Monday<\/span><\/a>. As a result, it is hard to predict who the Blues may start in goal. Jordan Binnington<\/a> made a start on Monday and struggled, giving up three goals on 18 shots before being pulled in favor of Joel Hofer<\/a>. Head coach Jim Montgomery<\/a> may go back to Binnington to give the veteran a chance to get back on track, but it is also possible that Hofer gets the nod.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, one thing we do know about the Blues lineup is it will not include Brandon Saad<\/a>. <\/span>The 32-year-old was waived on Thursday<\/span><\/a> for contract termination. The Blues moved to increase playing time for the younger players, like Zachary Bolduc<\/a>. It is still unclear at this time how the forward lines will look. However, these are the line combinations the Blues used at practice on Thursday:<\/span><\/p>\n

Line 1- Alexandre Texier<\/a>, Robert Thomas<\/a>, Pavel Buchnevich<\/span><\/p>\n

Line 2- Dylan Holloway<\/a>, Brayden Schenn, Jordan Kyrou<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Line 3- Jake Neighbours<\/a>, Radek Faksa<\/a>, Zachary Bolduc<\/span><\/p>\n

Line 4- Alexey Toropchenko<\/a>, Mathieu Joseph<\/a>, Nathan Walker<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Avalanche Story<\/span><\/h4>\n

Since last <\/span>Friday’s blockbuster trade<\/span><\/a>, the Avalanche are 1-2. They have allowed three goals or more in each game. Furthermore, they have scored two goals or less in two of the three games.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It has been a tough season for the Avalanche, a team many still consider Stanley Cup contenders <\/span>heading into the season<\/span><\/a>. However, the Avs have struggled with production from their roster aside from their top guys. Nathan MacKinnon<\/a>, Cale Makar<\/a>, and Artturi Lehkonen<\/a> have performed, but the same cannot be said for the rest of the roster. When the Avalanche won the Stanley Cup in 2022, they had a dangerous roster where anyone could light the lamp at any given time. If MacKinnon, Makar, and Lehkonen are not on the scorecard, then the Avs are likely not winning.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Prediction<\/span><\/h4>\n

Two teams with different-looking rosters are struggling to maintain an identity. In this game, both sides may look to beat the daylight out of one another just to let out some built-up frustration. This may be a bit of an ugly game regarding physicality. However, it will also be a high-scoring game. The Blues are leaving with the two points.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Blues win, 5-4.\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Prop Bets<\/span><\/h3>\n

The over\/under is set at 5.5 goals. We are taking the over with nine total goals.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For anytime-goal scorers, we are taking Martin Necas<\/a> to score a goal for his new team. For the Blues, we are going with the young guy and choosing Zachary Bolduc to score for the Blues.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Main Photo: Jeff Curry- Imagn Images<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Please play responsibly. Check for your local rules and age restrictions. Some jurisdictions require ages 21+. Have a gambling\u00a0problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER.<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welcome to another edition of NHL Predictions! It is the last day of January. The NHL has four games on the schedule today. As always, we will go around the league and examine each game, concluding with our prediction. Today’s prediction covers the game between the St. Louis Blues and the Colorado Avalanche. NHL Predictions […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3464,"featured_media":461805,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4524,28,4547,4548,32],"tags":[201,1515,3855,3759,944,77,4503,6291],"class_list":["post-461802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nhl-predictions","category-avalanche","category-hockey","category-nhl","category-blues","tag-artturi-lehkonen","tag-cale-makar","tag-joel-hofer","tag-jordan-binnington","tag-martin-necas","tag-nathan-mackinnon","tag-nhl-predictions","tag-zachary-bolduc"],"modified_by":"Andrew Willis","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3464"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461802"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461802\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":461806,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461802\/revisions\/461806"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/461805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}