St. Louis Blues at Edmonton Oilers Betting Preview
The Edmonton Oilers look for their fourth win in the last five games when they host St. Louis on Thursday night at Rogers Place. The Oilers are on a 7-3 stretch over their last 10, but that hasn’t led to making up much headway in the division, as they still sit in fourth place in the Atlantic.
St. Louis has posted both one of the longest losing streaks (8) as well as winning streaks (7) in the league this season, but this is a team struggling right now. The Blues are 2-6-1 over their last ten and are third from the bottom in the Central. The Oilers are a -165 favorite on Thursday night.
Blues Defense Could Be In Trouble
St. Louis goaltender Jordan Binnington is coming off his second shutout of the season, stopping all 25 Predators’ shots on Monday in a 1-0 win. That’s a great outing from Binnington, but Nashville also has the third-lowest-scoring offense in the NHL.
The degree of difficulty ramps up for Binnington and the Blues’ defense on Thursday, as the Oilers have scored 4+ in seven of their last ten games. The dominating performance from the St. Louis goaltender is also not the norm lately, as he had allowed 4+ goals in five of his previous seven starts.
If Binnington does run into some trouble, can the Blues offense come to his rescue? They have in a 5-4 win over Florida and a 7-4 victory over the Islanders recently but have scored five total times in their last three games.
Oilers Ready to Light the Lamp
You know things are going well when the Oilers land three players in the top seven in scoring over the past two weeks. Connor McDavid is absolutely dialed in with eight goals and ten assists over his last seven games, while both Leon Draisaitl (15 points) and Zach Hyman (10 points) are producing over that span as well.
Hyman tallied a hat trick on Tuesday in the 6-3 win in Nashville. That was a big victory over the Predators as Edmonton was playing on the back-to-back following a 2-1 loss in Minnesota on Monday. That does mean the Blues game is the third in four nights for the Oilers, so could fatigue be a factor here?
Stuart Skinner will likely be back between the pipes after sitting out in Tuesday’s back-to-back. Skinner has held opponents to three goals or less in five straight starts and has posted a 2.00 GAA over his last three.
Blues at Oilers Pick
Edmonton isn’t a great home team (9-7) and is playing in their third game in four nights, but how do you go against this dialed-in Edmonton offense right now? St. Louis doesn’t have anybody to match McDavid’s production, let alone Draisaitl, Hyman, or Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, who all have more points than the Blues’ top scorer.
Skinner is also playing well in net for the Oilers, so when you combine an in-form offense and a goaltender with the momentum, the play is obvious.
Pick: Edmonton -1.5 (+145)
