Blues Squeeze Past Stars 2-1, DarkHorse Cashes the +1.5 Hook

The Blues limped into Dallas and did exactly what DarkHorse said they would: stay close enough to cash. Final score 2-1 Stars, which means our Blues +1.5 sails home with room to spare. Dallas got the regulation win, sure, but the margin never threatened to blow out—exactly the script we drew up when we questioned whether Casey DeSmith's marginal goaltending edge could really drag St. Louis by two goals.

Jordan Binnington, he of the ghastly .873 save percentage and 3.33 GAA coming in, apparently decided tonight was the night to remember how to stop pucks. He kept it a one-goal game deep, and the Blues' structure—however uninspiring their offense—never cracked wide open. Dallas' thin forward rotation (Back, Benn, Kiviranta) couldn't generate the second-period avalanche you need to cover a puck line, and the Stars spent long stretches grinding rather than running away with it.

We called it: favorites cover under 47 percent league-wide for a reason, and this was textbook why. The better team won, but "better" doesn't mean "by two." That's the difference between a sharp number and a lazy chalk play. DarkHorse 1, Market 0.