St. Louis Blues vs. Anaheim Ducks Prediction, Preview, Picks & Odds - 4/24/2022

Time: 8:30 p.m. ET

Venue: Honda Center, Anaheim, CA

Where to watch: BSSD, BSMW, BSSC, SNP, SNW, SN360

DraftKings: Check back later

BetMGM: Check back later

Caesars: Check back later

Blues: 48-20-11

Ducks: 30-35-14

Does anyone really want to play the St. Louis Blues right now? I think we’ll find out soon when they get to take on the Minnesota Wild in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, but that group is a well-oiled machine right now heading into the postseason.

The Blues will try to extend their point streak to 16 games when they face the Anaheim Ducks as the Blues try to establish home-ice advantage for their matchup with the Wild. That, in of itself, is another battle entirely.

But St. Louis, coming off a 5-4 overtime win against the Arizona Coyotes on Saturday, is running as a well-oiled offensive juggernaut right now, particularly forward Robert Thomas despite having his 15-game point streak end. Same with Pavel Buchnevich with his 12-game point streak.

But Justin Faulk’s winning goal in overtime prevented a collapse of a 4-1 lead, but well enough to get a victory for St. Louis. Faulk scored twice and had an assist, and Jordan Binnington nearly collapsed into a puddle of mess with 16 saves and are tied with the Wild for second place in the Central.

"Ideally, it doesn't come to that situation. I'm not too pleased with our third period to be honest with you," Faulk said. "A three-goal lead, sometimes the team leading gets a little loose, and it's easy for the team that's down to play."

While the Blues have been able to get by on offense, goaltending has also been excellent for them, even a split tandem with Binnington and young goalie Ville Husso -- the latter is likely going to be the starter for Game 1 given how much he’s progressed this year.

But this group has a lot of firepower up front and so much talent at the backend that it makes you wonder if they can really contend with the likes of Calgary and Colorado. They have all the components to make it happen, but can they do it one more time?

The same could be said about the Ducks -- doing it one more time, not contending for the playoffs -- considering this is going to be Ryan Getzlaf’s final game. The Anaheim captain, who had an assist Saturday in the 4-2 loss to the Los Angeles Kings, will play for the final time.

"Usually when you see a guy retire, he's been pushed down the lineup," Eakins said. "Ryan Getzlaf is going to retire our No. 1 center. There's nobody close to him right now, and that's quite remarkable."

This is the ultimate trap game for St. Louis. Travel for the second night of a back-to-back, blew a 3-goal lead the night before to an inferior team, looking ahead to the playoffs, while an electric, playoff-like crowd for their captain’s final game. It’s going to be an insane atmosphere, and I would not be shocked to see the Ducks rally one more time and send Getzlaf off with one hell of a celebration. Ducks win 4-3

Blues are 20-12 this season after winning four or five of their last six games.

Ducks are 42-88 in the second half of the season the past three years.

Ducks are 7-16 in April the past three seasons.

Blues:

Brandon Saad -- Ryan O'Reilly -- David Perron

Pavel Buchnevich -- Robert Thomas -- Vladimir Tarasenko

Ivan Barbashev -- Brayden Schenn -- Jordan Kyrou

Dakota Joshua -- Logan Brown -- Nathan Walker

Marco Scandella -- Colton Parayko

Nick Leddy -- Justin Faulk

Calle Rosen -- Robert Bortuzzo

Ville Husso

Ducks:

Adam Henrique -- Ryan Getzlaf -- Troy Terry

Derek Grant -- Trevor Zegras -- Gerry Mayhew

Sonny Milano -- Isac Lundestrom -- Zach Aston-Reese

Dominik Simon -- Sam Steel -- Sam Carrick

Cam Fowler -- Kevin Shattenkirk

Urho Vaakanainen -- Jamie Drysdale

Josh Mahura -- Andrej Sustr

John Gibson

Points: Vladimir Tarasenko -- 80

Goals: Vladimir Tarasenko -- 33

Assists: Robert Thomas -- 55

Goalie: Ville Husso -- 24-6-6, 2.46 GAA, .923 SV%

Points: Troy Terry -- 64

Goals: Troy Terry -- 36

Assists: Trevor Zegras -- 36

Goalie: John Gibson -- 18-25-11, 3.16 GAA, .905 SV%