St. Louis Blues vs. Buffalo Sabres: Prediction, Preview, Picks & Odds - 11/23/2022

Time: 7 p.m. ET

Venue: KeyBank Center, Buffalo, NY

Where to watch: MSG-B, BSMW

DraftKings: Blues -175, Sabres +150

FanDuel: Blues -192, Sabres +158

BetMGM: Blues -189, Sabres +155

Caesars: Blues -178, Sabres +150

Blues: 10-8-0

Sabres: 7-11-0

Blues: won 8 straights; won 3-1 vs. Ducks last game

Sabres: won 7-2 at Canadiens last game

The St. Louis Blues have a chance to do something that not a lot of people, or teams really, have been able to do before. The Blues have a chance to respond from an 8-game losing streak to an 8-game winning streak. All they have to do is defeat the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday in Buffalo.

Which in all honesty might not be the most difficult thing at the moment. Because Buffalo as of Tuesday is playing a back-to-back against the Montreal Canadiens. The Sabres have also lost eight in a row and do not look like the team that everyone was buying stock on through the 1st 10 games.

But of course, that means that Buffalo is right on track with where it needs to be as a developmental organization and there is still a lot of development to be had. There's also the matter of Buffalo trying to find a goaltender because the goaltending tandem it has right now is not that good. So what does Buffalo have to do in the short term? Literally, try to outscore the opponents as much as possible. That's where you hope with young stars like Tage Thompson, who leads Buffalo with 22 points this year, can eventually form into a supernova and take over the entire hockey world.

Yet that's the problem when going against a team like the Blues who have not only won by way of scoring a lot, but the goaltending has been tremendous. Jordan Binnington has been stupendous Now sitting with a 9-5-1 record with a 2.76 goals against average and his save percentage is now at .912. the Blues have also gotten major contributions from their young star Jordan Kyrou who leads the team with six goals.

It's just the fact that the Blues have found different ways to win. You can look at Monday's victory over the Anaheim Ducks and see that they only gave up one goal. You can even look two nights prior and see how they dominated the shot chart again, holding the ducks to just two goals. But when we look back on this winning streak for the Blues, we focus on the win against Vegas in Vegas. We look at the win against Colorado in Denver. Those were two games, back-to-back, that deeply solidified how good this team can be. I think a lot of people forgot during this losing streak that the Blues were very close to knocking out Colorado in the playoffs last year.

This is essentially the very same team that almost beat Colorado last year, with a little bit more experience and a little bit more swagger this time around. So if S.t Louis gets hot at the right time, no one wants to see them in the playoffs and no one wants to see them essentially anytime because they are that good, they are that deep, and now they have a goalie tandem that rivals any other tandem in the league.

Buffalo is going to have to win at some point, but it will not be this time. There's just too much momentum going on with the Blues right now and with Buffalo coming off a back-to-back despite playing at home? There's no way I see them beating a rested Blues team. Blues win 4-1

Blues are 27-14 on the road when the total is 6 or more the last 3 seasons.

Blues are 16-8 on the road when playing their fourth game in 7 days the last 2 seasons.

Sabres are 18-20 when playing their 2nd game in 5 days the last 2 seasons.

Sabres are 19-21 in non-conference games the last 2 seasons.

Blues:

Pavel Buchnevich -- Robert Thomas -- Jordan Kyrou

Brandon Saad -- Ryan O'Reilly -- Josh Leivo

Ivan Barbashev -- Brayden Schenn -- Noel Acciari

Alexey Toropchenko -- Nikita Alexandrov -- Tyler Pitlick

Torey Krug -- Justin Faulk

Nick Leddy -- Niko Mikkola

Tyler Tucker -- Calle Rosen

Jordan Binnington

Sabres:

Jeff Skinner -- Tage Thompson -- Alex Tuch

Jack Quinn -- Dylan Cozens -- JJ Peterka

Vinnie Hinostroza -- Casey Mittelstadt -- Victor Olofsson

Rasmus Asplund -- Zemgus Girgensons -- Tyson Jost

Mattias Samuelsson -- Rasmus Dahlin

Owen Power -- Henri Jokiharju

Jacob Bryson -- Ilya Lyubushkin

Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen

Points: Brayden Schenn -- 16

Goals: Jordan Kyrou -- 6

Assists: Robert Thomas -- 12

Goalie: Jordan Binnington -- 9-5-1, 2.76 GAA, .912 SV%

Points: Tage Thompson -- 22

Goals: Tage Thompson -- 12

Assists: Rasmus Dahlin -- 13

Goalie: Craig Anderson -- 3-3-0, 2.82 GAA, .910 SV%