Avalanche vs Oilers Odds: A Battle of Heavyweights

Colorado Is Red-Hot Heading Into Weekend

Jared Bednar’s Team

Two of the best hockey teams in the Western Conference — with two of the NHL’s most dynamic scorers — face off in Edmonton on Saturday night as the Colorado Avalanche take on the Edmonton Oilers.

Colorado has won five hockey games in a row and is coming off an incredible win over the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday while Edmonton has won two straight following a pair of disappointing losses. Edmonton is a slight favorite on the Avalanche vs Oilers betting odds.

Colorado’s road struggles — the Avalanche are just 16-14-5 on the road and 26-6-0 at home — have been hard to figure but they’re too pronounced to be ignored entirely.

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Jared Bednar’s team might be starting to figure things out away from home, though, as they beat Vancouver after coming back from down 3-0 in the second period to force overtime where Valeri Nichushkin deflected in the game-winner.

In other NHL hockey scores, Edmonton crushed the Capitals 7-2 on Wednesday behind a natural hat trick from Zach Hyman who now has 46 goals this season.

Both of these teams are incredibly talented and are thrilling to watch but the focus here is, of course, on the meeting between Connor McDavid (25 goals and 81 assists) and Nathan MacKinnon (42 goals and 73 assists). McDavid and MacKinnon are each having truly incredible seasons which isn’t surprising but is still notable nonetheless.

Watching them play, especially in open ice, is a pleasure so look for tomorrow’s game to have plenty of fireworks. Edmonton is -130 to win on the moneyline and is +190 to win by two goals or more on the puckline. The over/under total is 6.5 goals.

Avalanche logo Avalanche vs Oilers Oilers logo

Day/Time:
Records: Avalanche (42-20-5)/Oilers (40-21-3)
Location: Rogers Place, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Which Goaltender Will Step Up?

It’s not surprising that the Avalanche lead the NHL in goals scored (251) or that Edmonton is sixth (229). These teams are elite because of their respective abilities to put the puck in the back of the net.

So, in this kind of game, the goaltending matchup is going to be incredibly important. Colorado will likely go with starter Alexandar Georgiev and while Edmonton will start Stuart Skinner.

Georgiev is critical for the Avalanche’s Stanley Cup odds. He was great last year in his first season with Colorado, winning 40 games and posting an impressive .918 save percentage and 2.53 goals allowed average, but has come back to earth a bit this season. His save percentage is down to .901 with a 2.85 GAA. This decline could be due to how heavily Georgiev has been used.

He has started 52 of Colorado’s 67 games and leads the NHL in games played (53), goals allowed (148) and minutes played (3113). He also is first in the NHL with 34 wins. Georgiev is a workhorse but his usage could be wearing on him as the season has progressed.

Edmonton native Skinner has stabilized a position that the Oilers have struggled with mightily over the past few seasons. He has a solid .907 save percentage and 2.57 GAA the season after he placed second in Calder Trophy voting for the NHL’s best rookie.

The Avalanche vs Oilers betting situation heavily hinges on which young goalie will be able to stem what is likely to be a barrage of shots headed their way.

Special Teams Are Critical

Another key component of this matchup is the power play and, conversely, the penalty kill. Unsurprisingly, these loaded teams with top-of-the-top power play captains are incredibly dangerous with a man-advantage. The Oilers are third in the NHL in converting on the power play, doing so 26.7% of the time.

The Avalanche are tied for sixth at 24.9%. When you see either of those teams on the hockey schedule, you know that you need to tighten up on the penalty kill or else you could be quickly buried on the NHL scoreboard.

On the flip side, both teams have relatively middle-of-the-pack penalty kills. Colorado is at 81.4% on the PK and Edmonton is a few ticks below at 79.8% so it’s not like these teams are proficient at keeping the other team off the board when they’re down a man.

They also commit an above-average amount of penalties so there should be plenty of opportunities for the power-play units to get high-danger scoring opportunities.

The Avalanche vs Oilers betting lines currently have Edmonton as a solid moneyline favorite which makes a lot of sense. If you really like the Oilers, you can get them at very favorable value on the puckline. Also, the over — which seems like a must-take based on the profiles of these teams — -142.

The over has hit in 58.2% of Colorado’s games this season, second-most in the NHL. That’s pretty intuitive and it’s a smart take for Saturday even though the over is very juiced with the sportsbooks expecting lots of scoring.

For NHL betting news, odds analysis, and more, visit Point Spreads Sports Magazine.


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