The St Louis Blues and the Colorado Avalanche kick off the NHL season. St Louis finished last season with a 42-19 record and lost to the Vancouver Canucks in the Conference Round of the playoffs 4-2. Colorado finished last season with a 42-20 record and lost to the Dallas Stars in the second round of the Conference playoff in seven games

St Louis has its top three scorers returning to the club; Ryan O’Reilly led the team with 61 points with a dozen goals with 49 assists. David Perron scored 25 goals with 35 helpers and Brayden Schenn had 25 goals with 33 assists. Goaltender Jordan Binnington struggled in the postseason, allowing an average of 4.72 goals per game but during the regular season Binnington had a 2.56 GAA and he saved 91 percent of shots faced.

Colorado made it to the second round of the playoffs but fell in seven games to the Dallas Stars. Nathan McKinnon led the team with 93 points with 35 goals with 58 assists on the season. Cale Maker had 50 points season and Andre Burakovsky added 20 goals and 25 assists.

Goaltender Phillip Grubbauer finished 18-12-4 record with a 2.63 GAA and 91 percent save percentage during the regular season with a GAA of 1.96 and 92 percent save percentage in the playoffs.

Home ice advantage doesn’t mean much during the pandemic so I am taking the better team with the better goaltending which is St Louis. Grubbauer is going to have a difficult time dealing with the Blues offense. The Avalanche will score goals this season but Binnington is one of the best in the game.

Play on St. Louis.