St. Louis Blues vs Chicago Blackhawks Wednesday Jan. 7th Betting Pick

I try to not let my “homerism” influence my picks here, but I also don’t want to completely ignore my team(s) since that’s who I mostly watch. I say “teams” because I have one (the Rangers) and my son has a different one (the Blues). They are extremely similar in that neither can score and both remain just outside very crowded playoff pictures in their respective conferences.

Anyways, I hit with the Rangers in Friday's game (though I missed that the NHL actually called in the Winter Classic and not the Stadium Series). I will try to make it 2 for 2 on homer NHL Picks.

NHL Season Stats

Record: 16–21
Units: –4.11

St. Louis Blues at Chicago Blackhawks

Blues ML (-120 BetRivers)

We get a “Rivalry Game” on TNT tonight as the Blues visit the Black Hawks. Unfortunately for fans of both teams, its a battle of two of the weaker teams in the NHL though hey, neither has lost in 2026! The Hawks have won 3 in a row while the Blues are up to 2 straight and a victory tonight would mark their longest run of the year.

I say they get there on the backs of their star Canadian netminder. No, I’m not talking about Team Canada’s Jordan Binnington who’s had a rather tough regular season so far (although he did “pitch” a shutout in his last outing). Rather its Winnipeg native Joel Hofer who has become the de facto 1st choice goalie for coach Jim Montgomery.

Hofer started the year pretty rough, but has rebounded big time with a 92.7% Save% and league best 8.97 GSAA all the way back to Thanksgiving. He’s perhaps the best stickhandling goalie in the league, though that occasionally works against him as his aggressive “outlet” passes sometimes result in dangerous turnovers.

Chicago goalie Spencer Knight has gone on kind of an opposite trajectory. He started the season as one of the top goalies in the league, but in that post Thanksgiving timeframe he’s a very league average 89.6% Save% and -0.78 GSAA.

And on offense, Connor Bedard remains out from a freak end game injury the last time these two teams met. Meanwhile the Blues are relatively healthy at least as far as their top 6 Forwards are concerned as Jordan Kyrou and Jimmy Snuggerud have both recently returned.

I like the Blues to finally get that third straight win as they creep back into the playoff picture.