ASA – American Sports Analysts Handicapper

ASA NHL TOP PLAY 10* ON St Louis Blues Puck Line (-1.5 goals) over New Jersey Devils, Tuesday at 8:05 PM ET

The Devils are expected to start Louis Domingue here.  When Mackenzie Blackwood has started between the pipes New Jersey has been very competitive.  However, in Dominque's last 4 starts the Devils are 0-4 and he has allowed 14 goals in his last 3 starts!  St Louis allowed a late goal at Nashville Saturday and that was the deciding goal in a tough 2-1 loss.  The Blues need to snap their losing streak and this is the perfect opportunity to do it.  St Louis is facing a struggling goalie and they are on home ice and Jordan Binnington is expected to get the start in the crease for the Blues.  Binnington is 16-4-5 with a 2.29 GAA in his home starts this season.  Of course St Louis is a very price-heavy fave in this spot but we get around that by utilizing the puck line in this match-up.  The Blues must win by 2 or more goals but then there is no juice to lay in this match-up.  14 of the last 20 wins for St Louis have come by 2 or more goals.  20 of the Devils last 28 losses have come by 2 or more goals.  Laying the 1.5 goals with St Louis is the value play here.

ASAwins 10* PLAY ON Eastern Michigan +3 over Kent State, Tuesday at 7 PM ET

After starting the MAC season losing 7 straight games, EMU has now won 4 of 5 and they are playing their best basketball of the season.  Their only loss in their last 5 games was @ Akron by a final score of 59-58.  It was actually an impressive loss as Akron is the highest rated team in the MAC (70th) and the only team ranked inside the top 100.  They were even showing signs of breaking out during their 7 game conference losing streak with 5 of those losses coming by 6 points or less.  The oddsmakers haven’t adjusted enough for EMU’s improvement as they have now covered 6 of their last 7 games with their only ATS loss during that stretch coming by a single point.  Kent is on the opposite track.  After starting the MAC schedule with a perfect 3-0 record, they are just 4-5 their last 9 games.  They are also 3-3 on the road in MAC play with two of those wins coming vs Western Michigan and Miami (OH), the two lowest rated teams in the conference.  The Golden Flashes have been favored on the road in MAC play 3 times this season and lost all 3 outright!  EMU has one of the better defenses in the nation (38th in defensive efficiency) and in conference play they are allowing just 0.95 PPG (2nd in the MAC).  While their shooting numbers for the season are not great, they seemed to have turn the corner on that end of the court with their current 5 game run.  During that span they are shooting 48% while allowing their opponents to hit only 37% of their shots.  This is a situation where an undervalued team, with an outstanding defense, playing at their peak is getting points at home.  Always a solid spot and we like Eastern Michigan to win this game at home.