Friday Picks: Blues top Bruins in pivotal game

Welcome to NHL Picks where CBSSports.com hockey writers Chris Peters and Adam Gretz make their predictions for all of the day’s games.

Boston Bruins at St. Louis Blues, 8 p.m. ET

There’s a lot on the line when the Blues and Bruins meet in Friday night’s inter-conference matchup. The Blues still have a shot at the Central Division title, while the Bruins are playing for their playoff lives.

Boston, once comfortably in playoff position, has found their situation to be rather precarious now. They are clinging to a one-point lead in the Atlantic Division, with the Detroit Red Wings still looking like a threat to overtake them for that spot. Though the Bruins are third in their division, getting leap-frogged by the Wings could drop them out of playoff position entirely. Both wild card teams – the New York Islanders and Philadelphia Flyers – currently own better records and will have two games in hand after Friday. So these are getting to be desperate times for the Bruins.

It’s been a shockingly-timed spiral for Boston that has put them in this uncomfortable spot. Losses in six of their last seven where the scoring has gone dry is cause for deep concern. Once a top-three team when it came to average goals per game, the Bruins are now sixth and falling. Panic does not yet appear to have set in, but with just five games remaining on the schedule, this team is running out of time to turn it around.

Over on the other side, the Blues are heading in a very opposite direction from Boston. St. Louis has won five straight and has allowed just one goal over that span as the momentum keeps building. Friday night they’ll be seeking their second six-game winning streak of the last month, having won six straight at the end of February into early March. Eleven wins over their last 13 games has the Blues looking like they’re going to head into the playoffs on an extreme high note.

The amazing thing about the Central Division race is despite the Blues’ incredible run of success of late, it’s only allowed them to keep pace with the Dallas Stars in the race for the Central title. Dallas is currently two points ahead of the Blues. The best St. Louis can do tonight is get even on points, but the Stars have the ROW (regulation + overtime wins) advantage in the tiebreaker. The race for first could come down to the last day of the season if this keeps up.

For the Blues, they are playing well enough to not have to fear any team when it comes to playoff matchups. They’d probably still like to win the division, though. If they did take the top spot, they would most likely match up with the Minnesota Wild in the first-round, which was identical to last year’s opening-round series where St. Louis got bounced. There is no easy matchup in the West anyway, but the Blues would earn home ice through at least the Western Conference Final with a first-place finish.

The Bruins are catching the Blues at a pretty bad time given the situation they’re in. That said, a win for Boston would be huge here. They need to find their groove soon or risk being out of the playoffs entirely, which looked improbable just a month ago.

They’ll have to face Brian Elliott, who is going for his 10th straight win between the pipes. He’s allowed just one goal in four starts since returning from injury last week. The 30-year-old netminder now owns a .935 save percentage, which leads the NHL and he’s playing to tighten his grip on the No. 1 goalie job for the playoffs. So that’s more bad news for Boston.

Both teams are dealing with some injuries heading into Friday night’s matchup, too. The Bruins are expected to be without defenseman Dennis Seidenberg and forward Brett Connolly, while forward Ryan Spooner is questionable. The Blues will be without top-four defenseman Jay Bouwmeester, who has been nursing an upper-body injury. Robby Fabbri and Carl Gunnarsson are also not expected to play. The top players for each team will still be in the mix, though.

With so much on the line for both teams, this game is setting up to be an especially entertaining one. Though the Bruins need the win even more than the Blues at this point with their playoff lives on the line, they don’t look like the team that is going to knock St. Louis off this incredible run they’re on. Pick: Blues 3, Bruins 2

The Blues will look to keep rolling against the struggling Bruins. (USATSI)