Premium NHL Picks: January 2nd

Two picks today.

Dallas Stars @ St Louis Blues

Having won five games in a row, Blues will try to beat the Stars for the first time this season when they meet at Scottrade Center.

Stars are coming off yet another defeat on home ice. They lost against Detroit Red Wings on Wednesday night and suffered a 4-1 loss on Friday against the Canucks. They have only one wins in last five games which they played four of them in Dallas. 

Blues are red hot. They blanked Nashville Predators last Sunday and then kept on extending their winning streak in games against Chicago Blackhawks and Phoenix Coyotes. 

Stars won the first two matches against the Blues in Dallas with 3-2 scores in both games and then they won 2-1 in St Louis in November.

Blues are still without top players, Perron, Oshie and McDonald but they seem to have adopted to their absence. They are extremely good on home ice this season and I will side with them tonight when they face skidding Stars.

PICK: ST LOUIS BLUES TO WIN [Moneyline]

2 units @ 1.77

Columbus Blue Jackets @ Nashville Predators

Predators stopped the losing streak on Friday when they beat the Minnesota Wild 4-1. They had a four game skid before that game in which they lost to Chicago, Ottawa, St Louis and Dallas. Two of those losses came in Nashville where they are 8-4-5

Jackets won three in a row and they beat the Senators in their last match. They are 8-7-2 on road this season and they are 1-1 against the Predators this season. Jackets had won the first matchup between the clubs in November but they suffered a 4-3 loss in December.

Pekka Rinne and Steve Mason will start for their teams in goals tonight. 

Jackets are a healthy team but Predators are without forward Lombardi. 

I like Nashville in this one. They have a solid defense in games in Nashville ranked at 5th in the NHL. This will help them in addition to the fact that Jackets are ranked 20th in the league on road.

PICK: NASHVILLE PREDATORS TO WIN [Moneyline]

2 units @ 1.74