The Edmonton Oilers (20-16-2) have ended a poor spell with back-to-back wins and will now look to pick up further momentum on Thursday against the Nashville Predators (27-14-3).
Getting the first goal is always very important in the NHL and bookmaker Bovada has the odds at -125 for Edmonton to light the lamp first on Thursday. The odds are at -115 for Nashville to open the scoring.
※ Current Odds Date & Time: January 26th, 7:00 P.M. (EST)
The Oilers have been the ultimate Jekyll and Hyde team this season starting off red-hot but then going completely cold. The team dropped just one of their first 10 outings of the campaign and had five losses with 21 games played when the wheels suddenly fell off the wagon. They have added just four wins in 17 games and the run includes two separate losing streaks of six-plus games.
It’s been the same old story with Edmonton as they can score at will but can’t get reliable goal-tending. Veteran Mike Smith had a very strong start to the season, but he’s ended up skating in only six games because of injuries and Mikko Koskinen tends to give up a lot of goals even when the team is winning.
Sitting sixth in the Pacific Division, the Oilers are having trouble making the playoffs again despite Leon Draisaitl topping the league’s scoring charts with 59 points and Connor McDavid not far behind him on 57 points.
McDavid has ended a season-worst three-game dry spell with multi-point efforts in two consecutive games, and as team captain, he’ll have a huge part to play in turning the season around both on and off the ice. Beating a strong team like Nashville should give Edmonton a big lift.
The Predators are ranked second in the Western Conference and they have shown very few signs of weakness throughout the campaign. The team can score goals in bunches and Juuse Saros’ superb form has made it very difficult to score against them.
The Finnish net-minder is tied for the most goalie wins in the league with 23 and he’s registered a strong 2.37 goals-against average with a .926 save percentage and two shutouts. Saros has taken only nine losses since the start of November and has suffered back-to-back defeats just a couple of times.
Nashville also had a rough stretch recently, but it lasted for only four games and John Hynes has guided the team to three straight wins after it. The 2017 Stanley Cup finalists are very resilient and they should be eager to get some revenge here after losing 5-2 in Edmonton at the start of the season.
