After struggling to convert their stellar offense into wins early in the season, the Edmonton Oilers have won nine of their last 11 games behind the power duo of Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid. They look to keep pace with Toronto in the North Division with a pair of road games against the Vancouver Canucks, the first of which is Tuesday night. The Canucks held their own to start the season, but have now lost nine of their last 11 games to plummet out of playoff positioning in a competitive North Division race that isn’t going to get any easier over the final months of the season.
Only Ottawa has allowed more total goals this season than Vancouver and the Canucks rank third in most goals allowed per game. That isn’t a great combination when facing a highly-skilled team like Edmonton or a dangerous sharpshooter like Connor McDavid. The center has already tallied a hat trick against the Canucks this season, and Vancouver hasn’t proven to have any defensive pair capable of slowing down the Oilers’ best players. The +600 odds from the hockey betting sites in New Jersey are sensible, and it provides more value than betting on McDavid to have two or three points. McDavid is one of the best pure goal scorers in the game and this is a matchup that will allow him to have plenty of chances on goal. CONNOR MCDAVID SCORES 2+ GOALS Although Vancouver has scored a massive number of goals this season, it ranks in the middle of the pack in goals per game this year. The Canucks have scored at least three goals in three of the last four games, but in four of the last seven, they have scored one goal or fewer. Edmonton has kept a pretty clean net over the last two weeks, allowing two goals or fewer in six of its last seven games. During this recent seven-game stretch, Edmonton’s goalies have a 944 save percentage and they have improved their overall save percentage to .917 over the last 11 games after having an .889 save percentage in the first nine games of the season. The improvements in Edmonton’s defense are enough for me to jump on the +280 odds from the legal sports betting sites in New Jersey. VANCOUVER CANUCKS UNDER 2 GOALS This is the most outlandish of my NHL predictions, especially since the NHL betting sites in New Jersey normally have excellent odds on the typical 1.5-goal spread. But I’m upping it by a goal because of the difference in confidence levels in these teams heading into the game. Edmonton has an explosive offense and the scoring talent to be able to outscore any team it faces on a given night. That talent is starting to pay off with wins in nine of its last 11 games while Vancouver has slumped to just two wins in its last 11 contests. The Canucks’ defense has been leaky almost all season, and that never bodes well when the team you’re facing as two of the league’s top-three scorers. So at +333 odds, I’m betting on complete dominance from a streaking Oilers team against a Canucks squad trying to find a jump in the middle of the season. EDMONTON OILERS -2.5 GOALS
Head to Head This is the third game of the season between Vancouver and Edmonton after the pair split two games in Edmonton to begin the season. Stats After splitting the first two games of the season, Edmonton and Vancouver have still both won seven of the previous 14 meetings between the teams. The Oilers and Canucks both won two games against one another in each of the previous three seasons. Connor McDavid leads the league by being on the ice for 44 of Edmonton’s 72 goals this season. McDavid has points on 37 of those 44 goals as well, so in addition to being on the ice for more than 60 percent of the Oilers’ goals this season, he’s had a point in 51.4 percent of the total goals. This game features three of the top-four assist leaders in the league with Connor McDavid leading the pack with 25, Leon Draisaitl in third with 20 and Vancouver defenseman Quinn Hughes in fourth with 19 helpers. Brock Boeser is tied for second in the league with 12 goals so far this season for Vancouver. However, he’s scored just four goals in his last 11 games after scoring eight in the first 11 games of the season for the Canucks, including a pair in the season-opening win against Edmonton.
Edmonton Oilers to win These are two teams going in opposite directions, and I’m picking the team going in the right direction in this game. Edmonton has won nine of its last 11 games while Vancouver has lost nine of its last 11 contests, so the Oilers should be the obvious pick. More obvious is that the Canucks have one of the worst defenses in the game and are allowing more then 3.5 goals per game. That isn’t going to work well against a team as top-loaded and dangerous as the Oilers with their superstar duo on the top line. The Oilers have improved drastically at the back end in recent weeks, and that holds up against a struggling Canucks squad.
