Vegas Golden Knights Look to Snap Losing Streak on the Road Against the St. Louis Blues

Mon, Apr 5, 2021
By Jim Vassallo (Veri.bet Writer)

The Vegas Golden Knights (24-10-2, 50 points) visit the St. Louis Blues (16-15-6, 38 points) on Monday, April 5, at 8 PM ET.

Vegas has lost three in a row to fall out of first place in the West Division. The Golden Knights have just a two-point lead on the third-place Minnesota Wild.

St. Louis is in the midst of a six-game losing streak, dropping the Blues to a tie in fifth place with the San Jose Sharks. St. Louis is in danger of moving further down the standings with a loss tonight.

Vegas is just 5-4-1 in its last 10 games played and St. Louis has struggled to a 2-7-1 mark in its last 10 games.

Vegas leads the eight-game regular-season series 3-1. The Golden Knights have won the last three games in the series after dropping the opener 5-4 in a shootout. All four games have resulted in six total goals or more. Two games resulted in nine total goals scored.

Vegas' most recent loss came against the Minnesota Wild by a 2-1 tally. The Golden Knights had trouble solving Wild goalie Cam Talbot who had 27 saves.

Vegas was leading 1-0 after two periods, but could not secure the victory, leading to the team's first loss of the season in that situation. Entering the game, Vegas had been 15-0-0 when leading after two periods and had won 23 straight games in that scenario dating back to last season.

This is the first time since head coach Peter DeBoer took over the position on January 15, 2020.

“You can see where the games are going,” DeBoer said. “We have to be comfortable in those types of games. The playoffs are on the horizon here and everyone’s dialing in on playoff-type details.”

Vegas is 0-for-10 on the power play in the last three games and went 0-for-7 in a two-game set against the Wild.

The last time St. Louis hit the ice the Blues were just 40 seconds from heading to overtime against the Colorado Avalanche before Cale Makar scored to give the Avalanche the lead and eventually the victory.

Ryan O'Reilly had the lone goal for the Blues and goalie Ville Husso stopped 32 shots in the loss.

“I just trusted myself to hold on and make a strong play. I just throw it away,” O’Reilly said of the winning goal. “It’s not a good play. It was just really, really stupid, which you can’t afford to do. I cost us one, maybe two points that we’re in desperate need of. I wish I could have it back but have to be a lot better going forward.”

Head coach Craig Berube knows his team is playing good hockey, but that the bounces just aren't going their way right now.

“We look at these games going back to the (Minnesota) game and we’re playing good hockey, solid hockey and we’re coming out on the losing end. We’ve got to find a way to get more pucks on the net. On the other side of things when you keep playing the way you’re playing, you’re doing a lot of good things, things will turn. You’ve got to stay mentally strong.”

Both of these teams are in desperate need of a win and something will have to give tonight. The Golden Knights are 1.5-goal favorites to take down the Blues on Monday night. It's tough to pick a winner in this game since both teams have struggled so much of late. If you are looking to bet on an NHL game tonight, put your money on the OVER 5.5 total goals scored.