Things were not going badly for the St. Louis Blues until they ran into the Arizona Coyotes.

And things were moving a little slow for the Coyotes until they met up with the Blues.

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They will be playing each other on Friday, Saturday and Monday at Gila River Arena in Glendale, Ariz, which isn’t particularly good news for the Blues.

In fact, because of postponements and shuffling of the schedule, these teams are in the midst of playing each seven times in a row. Not all of it was scheduled to be that way, obviously. But that’s the way it is in the NHL these days.

Is any of this good news for you? We think it might be, and we hope you act on it at America’s Bookie.

St. Louis Blues at Arizona Coyotes Picks

Blues vs. Coyotes Betting Report

When: 9 PM ET

NHL Betting Odds

Money Line: Blues -135, Coyotes +115

Total: Over 5.5 Goals +105, Under 5.5 Goals -125

Puck Line: Blues -1.5 (+180), Coyotes +1.5 (-220)

When you think about it, is it all that much different than playing a seven-game playoff series? Not really. And it must be considered that these teams have most likely endeavored to make adjustments against each other from one game to the next.

St. Louis hosted the first four games in this set, with the Coyotes winning the last three. Those last two games were not expected, but the league directed Arizona to stay in St. Louis for a couple of extra games when games with Minnesota and Colorado had to be re-scheduled.

Arizona is 6-5-1 for 13 points and fourth place in the West Division. They’re averaging 2.83 goals a game, but have tallied three or more in each of the last five games, including 14 in four games against the Blues.

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St. Louis (7-4-2) is still in second place in the West, and they are one point behind Vegas, although the rampaging Golden Knights have three games in hand.

By the way, Vegas is one of only three teams in the NHL (Philadelphia and Washington are the others) who have a better shooting percentage than the Blues (10.4%) in 5 v 5 situations.

If America’s Bookie patrons are able to use that as a frame of reference, you can see why they have slumped. In the first game of this stretch against the Coyotes, St. Louis shot 13.8%. But in the succeeding three games, they have shot 7%, 4% and 7% again.

But the real problem for the Blues has been in special team situations. They are below average when it comes to killing penalties – in fact, third from the bottom in the league. And in 44 power play opportunities, they have scored five goals. That’s 11.4%, and that’s 28th in the NHL. They went one for 12 over these last three games.

Arizona’s Darcy Kuemper got 100th career win Monday. He was reached four goals in the first of these games, but has since come back with 64 saves on 68 shots, and we expect he’ll be between the pipes on Friday.

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The Blues will be missing a couple of centers. Tyler Bozak has been sidelined with an “upper-body injury,” while Robert Thomas has a broken thumb. We’re not sure how severely this will affect them, but it won’t help.

Meanwhile, ‘Zona coach Rick Tocchet has hit a little paydirt with his “Short Leash Line” of Conor Garland, Nick Schmaltz and Clayton Keller, who have produced 15 points in the last four games. There is also the possibility that defenseman and team captain Oliver Ekman-Larsson could return from a lower-body injury.

The numbers aren’t working for St. Louis right now. We’ll take this home dog.

The Play: ARIZONA +115