Blues vs Devils

Jack Hughes may be sidelined after finger surgery, but the Devils still come in with the superior form, having just snapped a three-game skid and riding an 8-0-1 home record, while the Blues limp into the finale of a 1-1-2 road trip with only nine goals in their last five games and a season-long 2.65 GF/3.61 GA profile that has them near the bottom of the league at both ends. With Hughes, Brett Pesce and Johnathan Kovacevic out, New Jersey leans heavily on Nico Hischier, Jesper Bratt and Timo Meier up front, all anchored on an ESPN-confirmed roster alongside an upgraded blue line, and Markstrom likely in net after a 32-save win over Detroit; St. Louis counters with Jordan Binnington plus Brayden Schenn, Robert Thomas and Justin Faulk, but that group has struggled to finish despite their own ESPN-listed depth. The key matchup angle is Meier’s history against St. Louis: 9 goals and 15 points in 22 career regular-season games versus the Blues, including a four-point hat trick the last time these teams met at Prudential Center, while Hischier has quietly put up 10 points in 13 career games against them, compared with Binnington’s big shutout in Newark last November and Dylan Holloway’s two-goal night in that same visit. Combining the Devils’ perfect regulation record at home, their special-teams edge (slightly better PP and significantly better PK), and a Blues side that’s 4-5-2 on the road and trending defensively in the wrong direction, I make New Jersey closer to a low-60s win probability, enough to justify laying the current -145 moneyline with a solid but not elite edge at this price, hence a B grade. Odds and availability are subject to change. This bet was made at 26/11/2025 09:32am

Given the current trajectories, Over 5.5 leans into several converging factors: the Devils are playing high-event hockey at roughly 3.05 goals for and 3.05 against per game, and they’ve just come off a 4-3 win, while St. Louis combines a below-average attack (2.65 goals per game) with one of the leakiest defenses in the league at 3.61 against, a profile that has produced plenty of six- and seven-goal totals despite their recent scoring funk. New Jersey’s injuries matter here—Hughes’ absence lowers their ceiling slightly—but Meier and Hischier have historically driven offense against the Blues (Meier with that four-point hat trick here in 2024 and 15 points in 22 career regular-season meetings, Hischier with multi-assist production in their last Newark matchup), and Bratt’s playmaking plus a dangerous power play facing a 75 percent Blues penalty kill should generate quality looks. On the other side, Binnington has shown he can steal games in this building (notably last year’s shutout), but he now backstops a Blues group that bleeds chances and is finishing a long road swing, with their skaters still creating enough volume that a modest finishing correction could push them closer to three goals on a given night. With Markstrom likely starting again for New Jersey after a heavy workload, scheduling density (Devils in a packed 7-games-in-11-days stretch), and both clubs’ special-teams volatility all pointing toward at least one tired defensive performance, my projection clusters this total around 6.1 goals; at a flat -110 both ways, that’s a meaningful enough cushion to take Over 5.5 with a B-grade blend of likelihood and value. Odds and availability are subject to change. This bet was made at 26/11/2025 09:32am

For the puckline, I prefer paying the heavy juice for Blues +1.5 rather than chasing Devils -1.5, despite New Jersey’s sparkling home mark, because of how both teams’ recent results cluster around one-goal margins and how St. Louis tends to hang around even when outgunned. The Blues are 3-2-4 in one-goal games and have earned 10 points from those contests, and this is the last stop of a trip where they’ve been competitive (1-1-2) even as the offense sputters, with Schenn on a two-game goal streak and Justin Faulk quietly heating up; add in Binnington’s history at Prudential Center, including last year’s record-setting shutout, plus Holloway and Faulk’s multi-point outputs against New Jersey in that series, and the matchup profile supports a narrow Devils edge more often than a blowout. New Jersey’s own context pushes the same way: they just snapped a three-game skid, are still without Hughes and a couple of depth forwards/defenders, and rely heavily on Meier, Hischier and Bratt to carry the offense, while their 8-0-1 home record has featured its share of single-goal wins and Markstrom is coming off a high-volume start that could invite some variance on the second outing. Because the moneyline already bakes in the Devils’ advantages and +1.5 is priced at a steep -220, the true value here is thinner than on the side or total, but with the combination of fatigue, injuries and both clubs’ track records in tight games, I still slightly prefer Blues +1.5 to the alternative and grade it a C+—a reasonable leg for parlays or risk-averse bettors, just not a standalone cornerstone. Odds and availability are subject to change. This bet was made at 26/11/2025 09:32am