Blues vs. Avalanche Game 1 Odds, Prediction, Pick (May 17, 2021)

Ryan O’Reilly is one heck of a leader. He’s won a Stanley Cup with the St. Louis Blues two seasons ago. He won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the MVP of the playoffs that same season. He was named captain of the Blues this past season after former captain Alex Pietrangelo left the team for the “greener” pastures of Vegas. It’s safe to say that he knew what was going to follow his recent declaration that his Blues were going to beat the President’s Trophy-winning Colorado Avalanche while setting the stage for quite an intriguing series.

Let’s take a look at this Game 1 matchup between St. Louis and Colorado from a betting perspective in our Blues vs. Avalanche betting preview with odds, picks and predictions.

His upset prediction certainly sent a buzz throughout the league, and is guaranteed to be bulletin board material for the Avalanche, as if they needed any more incentive than their season-long quest to win the Stanley Cup. Maybe O’Reilly knows something about the makeup of the Colorado locker room as a former player there?

Click here to get started with BetMGM and take advantage of a bet $20, win $100 guaranteed offer.

Blues vs. Avalanche Betting Pick (May 17, 2021)

The Avalanche finished the regular season on a 17-game point streak at Ball Arena (16-0-1), tying a franchise record originally set back in 2002-03. That final game, a 5-1 win over Los Angeles, secured home ice advantage throughout the playoffs for Colorado.

It was important for the Avs to get that home ice advantage, as they finished tied with Pittsburgh for the best home record in the NHL at 22-4-2, so they will be a tough out at home. That said, the Penguins lost their playoff opener on home ice, so there are no guarantees. The Blues, even though they were inconsistent all season, did play well enough to beat the Avalanche three times (once in Colorado) and lost three others by just one goal.

The Blues also closed the regular season with an 8-1-3 stretch over 12 games, meaning that maybe they finally feel closer to their 2019 form than the inconsistent team they’ve been over the past 1.5 seasons.

Blues vs. Avalanche Game 1 Odds

Here are the lines for Blues vs. Avalanche at DraftKings Sportsbook:

Team	Spread	Moneyline	Total
Avalanche	-1.5 (+120)	-220	O 5.5 (-117)
Blues	-1.5 (-150)	+185	U 5.5 (-105)

Bets We Like With an Avalanche Win

Avalanche to win AND OVER 5.5 goals (+140, DraftKings)

Colorado scored 110 goals in 28 regular season games at home this season, good for an average of 3.93 per game. That was nine more goals scored at home than the second-best home-scoring team in the league. In three of the their five wins this season against the Blues, the total has surpassed the over/under of 5.5.

Colorado goalie Philipp Grubauer has been sensational this season and is a likely Vezina Trophy finalist. Meanwhile, St. Louis goalie Jordan Binnington has been far more pedestrian overall this season (18-14-8, 2.65 GAA, .910 SV%) and really struggled in last season’s playoffs (0-5-0, 4.72 GAA, .851 SV%), one year after he carried the Blues to the first championship in franchise history.

Add in the ramped up emotion for this game, let alone the series, and you’re looking at more of a shootout than usual for the playoffs, which favors Colorado.

Click here to get a $1,000 risk-free first bet with FanDuel Sportsbook.

Bets We Like With a Blues Win

Ryan O’Reilly OVER 0.5 points (-106, FanDuel)

If you are going to open your mouth and make a bold prediction, then you better back it up. That said, we know O’Reilly has it in him and we know how clutch of a performer he is, especially in the playoffs.

If his bold prediction is going to come true, he’s going to have to be right in the middle of it. This near even-money bet for him to score at least a point holds decent value. If you want better odds, but a more difficult task, you can bet on O’Reilly to actually score a goal (+280, FanDuel).

Click here to sign up with DraftKings Sportsbook and grab 40/1 odds on any NBA game during the postseason.

Bets We Like Independent of Outcome

Andre Burakovsky OVER 0.5 points (-124, FanDuel)

Scoring streaks don’t usually carry over from the regular season to the playoffs, and the Colorado players you would like to back to score (Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanan, Cale Makar) all have tough odds to back with prop bets, so much so that we don’t recommend putting your money at risk.

However, Burakovsky finished the season on an eight-game points streak, scoring at least one point in 11-of-13 games. Couple that with the oddsmakers still not believing he’ll keep his streak alive and our usual advice to bet a streak until it’s gone (playoff stats don’t count with regular season stats, but we consider that a technicality here) and getting him at -124 is a pretty good bet.

Blues vs. Avalanche Game 1 Prediction

The Blues seemed to find their identity down the stretch, but the Avalanche also came through when the chips were down.

And now, with the bulletin board material and the confidence riding high in both locker rooms, we expect a close, tough series between these teams. That starts with a Game 1 that will be all that and more: close, tough, physical and high energy. We’ll give the opener to the Avalanche, but we think this series could go the distance.

Pick: Avalanche 4, Blues 3

Those located in CO can click here can grab a $500 risk-free bet. Grab the offer in MI here, PA here, and NJ here.