The Vancouver Canucks will visit the Enterprise Center for a critical matchup versus the St. Louis Blues, which will be featured on Prime Monday Night Hockey. Both teams are in desperate need of two points from this matchup as they try to track down the Calgary Flames for the final Western Conference playoff berth.

I’ll detail the relevant game notes, as well as outline my favourite betting angle below.

After authoring a quality 2-1 win over the league-leading Washington Capitals at home on Saturday night, the Canucks have yet another opportunity to finally win two consecutive games. They have not won two straight games since December 1st and have lost their last eight games, which have come following a victory, though three of those losses have come past regulation.

The Capitals held a 12-8 edge in high-danger chances on Saturday and outshot the Canucks 33-25. Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery noted that the Canucks did a much better job of getting bodies to the front of the net, though, and complimented Elias Pettersson and Linus Karlsson specifically for bringing a strong net-front presence.

Kevin Lankinen was excellent in saving 32-of-33 shots faced, finishing with a +1.83 GSAx rating in the game. Lankinen now holds a +2.6 GSAx rating and a .905% save percentage in 31 appearances this season.

It’s unclear whether or not Lankinen will be offered another opportunity to start in this matchup. Given the importance of this game, it seems more logical to ride the hot hand as opposed to going back to Thatcher Demko, who has struggled to find his game after a late start to the year due to a significant injury.

Demko holds a save percentage of just .867% this season and a -5.5 GSAx rating in 12 appearances.

20-year-old defender Elias Pettersson made his NHL debut on Saturday night and looked comfortable despite earning just 10:37 of time on the ice. Based on yesterday’s practice, Pettersson will remain in the lineup despite the fact that Tyler Myers will return from his three-game suspension.

Myers skated with Quinn Hughes on the top pairing at Sunday’s practice, while Derek Forbort and Filip Hronek formed the team’s second pairing. It appears as though Vincent Desharnais will come out of the lineup, leaving a third pairing of Pettersson and Carson Soucy.

Dakota Joshua is a game-time decision and could potentially return from a 10-game absence, while Kiefer Sherwood did not travel with the team and will be absent from the lineup.

Since the start of January, the Canucks have scored just 1.83 goals per game, which is the lowest mark in the NHL. They have generated just 2.45 xGF/60 during that span and just 23.62 shots for per 60.

Outside of Hughes, the Canucks’ defensive core continues to struggle to help the team generate offence due to its drastically below-average ability to move the puck up the ice. It certainly hasn’t helped that J.T. Miller and Elias Pettersson aren’t living up to their offensive potential either, which has created a perfect storm for disappointing offensive results.

The ‘new-coach bounce’ seems to be wearing off to some extent for the Blues, as in the month of January they are just 5-6-0 after playing to a record of 9-5-3 in the initial 17 games of head coach Jim Montgomery’s tenure.

Seven of their 11 matchups in January have also come versus teams currently holding a playoff spot, which has certainly helped contribute to their lesser results. In those 11 matchups, they hold an expected goal share of 50.37%, and they do own a positive goal differential, scoring 3.00 goals per game while allowing 2.90 goals against.

Jordan Binnington and Joel Hofer combine for a save percentage of just .896% in those 11 games, which hasn’t helped matters. Binnington has been confirmed as the Blues starting goaltender in this matchup and holds a .898% save percentage and +1.4 GSAx rating this season.

Throughout Montgomery’s tenure with the Blues, they have allowed 2.68 goals against per game, which ranks 11th best in the NHL. Year after year, Montgomery’s Boston Bruins teams were among the league’s best defensive sides, so it should come as no surprise that the Blues have taken steps forward defensively under his watch.

Both teams are certainly well aware of how critical this matchup is in the standings, and it seems logical to expect a high level of urgency and defensive structure from both sides as a result. Goal-scoring drops considerably each postseason, and this could be a good matchup to play into that idea.

Tocchet and Montgomery have both honed reputations for being fairly conservative coaches who demand defensive accountability from their rosters, and they will likely both have their sides expecting a tight-checking affair in this matchup.

The Canucks have played some of the league’s lowest-event hockey for a fairly large sample of play now, and their inability to produce offence at a high rate has remained a consistent flaw of late.

The Blues have not been all that much better offensively, however, as they rank 10th in xGF/60 in the month of January. At their best, the Canucks are still highly capable of grinding out ‘coin-flip’ type affairs, and I do expect them to follow up Saturday’s performance with a good showing in this spot.

This looks like a good spot to target a bet on the under, and my only concern is Demko potentially making the start, as he has clearly struggled to find his game since returning from injury. If Lankinen starts, I see value in betting the game to go under 5.5 goals at -131 or better.