Colorado Avalanche (-170) at St. Louis Blues (+ 150)

St. Louis had no business taking Game 1 to overtime, but Jordan Binnington was great, making 51 saves. He was good again in Game 2, but as expected, the Blues were better as a team. It would’ve been hard to play as poorly as they did in Game 1, as the Avalanche owned 70 percent of the even strength shot attempts, but I didn’t expect them to play so well in Game 2 and they did. I expect Colorado will be better in Game 3, but things started to turn for them in last year’s playoffs around this time, and they must be mindful of that. The Avalanche are a great team, but they can’t let their foot off the gas.

Ryan O’Reilly has been on fire in the playoffs. He’s scored six goals in eight playoff games, and rightfully so, because he’s generating a lot of shots on goal. He’s registered at least three shots in six out of his last eight games, and he’s put up nine total shots in two games versus Colorado. I’m betting O’Reilly to go over 2.5 shots on goal at -120. I’m also going back to the well on Devon Toews, who has been a monster in these playoffs, but is coming off probably his worst performance so far. Toews generates a lot of shots, and gets a lot of touches throughout the game, so he should be involved in Colorado’s scoring opportunities. It didn’t work out last time, but hopefully Toews will find himself on the scoresheet when this game is over.