Welcome to a Sunday edition of NHL Predictions and marks the last Sunday on the calendar for 2024. In a few days, we will celebrate the memories that 2024 brought us and welcome 2025. While a new year of hockey memories await us, we still have some business to attend to in 2024. Our prediction today looks at the matchup between the St. Louis Blues and the Buffalo Sabres.
Time: 3:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST)
TV: FanDuel Sports Network Midwest, MSG Western New York
The Blues visited the Sabres in the middle of November. The Sabres were victorious in overtime, 4-3. The Blues led midday through the third period before Alex Tuch tied the game. Rasmus Dahlin won the game in overtime with a power-play goal. If the Sabres win and complete the season sweep, it will be the fourth consecutive season in which the season series has resulted in a sweep. The Blues have swept the season series twice, while the Sabres have once.
Coming off a three-day Christmas break, perhaps we should have expected some rust on the defensive side of the ice. In Friday’s win, the Blues led 4-2 after the first period, 5-3 after the second, and finished the game with a 7-4 win. Robert Thomas scored twice. Furthermore, Cam Fowler scored his first goal since joining the Blues.
The Blues will look to clean up the defence as they host a Sabres team who has won two games in a row. This has “trap game” written all over it. The Sabres have struggled this season, and that is an understatement. However, there is talent on the Buffalo roster, as the Blues already saw in November. Despite the Sabres having lost 15 of their last 17, the Blues should not take this game lightly. It may be tempting to look ahead to the Winter Classic on Tuesday, but the team must take care of business first at home against the Sabres.
“Okay, we won a game yesterday. If we win today, it’s called “two in a row”. And if we win again tomorrow, it’s called a “winning streak”… It has happened before!” – Lou Brown, Major League II
Sparing us sappy cliches, Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff has to be thinking this as the team prepares for the game. The Sabres have played well their last two games, one on the road and the other at home. Furthermore, they have scored 11 goals in those games. For a team that is in last place, the Sabres will look for any momentum they can get. It is worth mentioning, despite the last-place spot in the standings, the Sabres are only eight points out of the final wild card spot in the Eastern Conference. As strange as it may seem, the Sabres season is not over yet.
The Sabres have scored 11 goals in two games. The Blues gave up four goals in a rough defensive showing, but did score seven, on Friday. Furthermore, the matchup in November saw seven total goals. Do we see these high goal totals continue? Do the defences step up? We anticipate to see some goals on Sunday. We are picking the same score from November, maybe even in overtime again. However, we are choosing a different winner this time.
Prediction: Blues win, 4-3.
The over/under is set at 5.5 goals. We are taking the over with seven total goals.
We like former Blues first-round pick (and key piece in the Ryan O’Reilly trade) Tage Thompson as an anytime goal-scorer for the Sabres. Thompson currently leads the Sabres with 17 goals. For the Blue Note, we like defenceman Philip Broberg as an anytime goal-scorer. Broberg scored his third goal of the season in the win on Friday.
Main Photo Credit: Timothy T. Ludwig-USA TODAY Sports
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