Do the Oilers prevail at the Champion?

The best team in recent years meets the best two players in recent years. The fact that one of these two players is Leon Draisaitl can already be considered an accolade for German hockey – even if it doesn’t do the Oilers much good at the moment.

Despite Dr. Drai and Connor McDavid, the Canadians are stumbling through the season and even have to fear not making the playoffs. They are currently just two points ahead of the first non-playoff place.

Of course, a success in Tampa would be worth its weight in gold. However, it is highly doubtful that this will happen, as the Oilers have lost all of their last eight meetings with the Bolts. The last away win in Tampa dates back to 2009.

Since the Oilers have also been a bit inconsistent on the road lately and went down 3:7 against Minnesota, our prediction for Tampa vs. Edmonton is the Lightning’s tenth home win in a row against the Oilers. A few goals should also be in store for us in the duel between these offensive lines.

Tampa Bay Lightning – Statistics & current form

The Tampa Bay Lightning are back on track. After their disastrous 3-9 loss to the Florida Panthers before New Year’s Eve and two more losses right at the start of the year, they have now won seven of their last ten games.

However, they were last in action seven days ago when they defeated the New Jersey Devils 6-3. Since then they have been able to recover and did not have a game to play at the weekend or in the week so far. That makes them doubly dangerous now.

Restored Lightning the clear favourites

Because of this rest, the Bolts are also considered the clear favourites by the bookmakers against an Oilers team that not only had to play three tough games in the same time, but also conceded a full twelve goals in them.

In general, the Lightning’s defence can be considered much better, allowing an average of 0.46 fewer goals per game than the Oilers. That’s a clear difference in the NHL, especially since Tampa also scores 0.11 more goals offensively.

Bolts statistically clearly ahead

This means their goal differential per game is a whopping 0.57 goals better, which could also mean a more emphatic Tampa win on Wednesday. Edmonton’s goalies in particular have been in worrying form of late.

This is in stark contrast to Tampa goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy, who has the second most wins of any goalie with 26 and is putting up excellent numbers with a save percentage of 92.2%. Another reason to clearly favour Tampa odds on Bolts vs Oilers.

Key Players:
G: Andrei Vassilevskiy
D: Victor Hedman
D: Jan Rutta
LW: Ondrej Palat
C: Brayden Point
RW: Nikita Kucherov

Edmonton Oilers – Statistics & current form

The Oilers are arguably the team with the biggest question marks in the NHL. Why can’t they get any consistency in their play despite McDavid and Draisaitl? Will they find another top goalie or will they continue to rely on Smith and Koskinen?

These are just two of the big questions surrounding the team that made a coaching change just the previous week to bring new momentum to the game. New coach Jay Woodcroft succeeded with five wins in a row before old weaknesses surfaced again in Sunday’s 3:7 loss to Minnesota.

Oilers defence and goalies at times disastrous

Seven goals conceded should never happen to a self-proclaimed title contender, of course. Especially Mike Smith’s save percentage of 42.8% was anything but NHL worthy. Without a real goalie this might not have been the last defeat.

For Wednesday we expect a chance for Mikko Koskinen, who is still the slightly better of the two goalies with a save percentage of 89.9%. Even though it doesn’t speak for Edmonton that they don’t have a single goalie with a save percentage of more than 90% in the squad.

High Scoring Game Expected

This vulnerable defence obviously doesn’t bode well for the Oilers on Wednesday against one of the league’s best offenses. The Canadiens have also looked bad against Tampa on a regular basis of late. In the last eight duels, they conceded an average of 3.87 goals. A number that is not improbable in the current form.

Thus, a bet on Tampa is the best betting option for the Lightning against the Oilers. This can even be improved somewhat in a combination with Over 5.5 goals, as three times in the last five duels at least even seven total goals have been scored.

Key Players:
G: Mikko Koskinen
D: Darnell Nurse
D: Evan Bouchard
LW: Evander Kane
C: Connor McDavid
RW: Kailer Yamamoto

Tampa Bay Lightning – Edmonton Oilers Head-to-head comparison / H2H record

As mentioned above, the statistics in recent years do not favour the Oilers in this matchup either. The last four meetings all went to Tampa, of the last ten duels they were victorious eight times.

The goal differential in this period also speaks a clear language. The Bolts dominated the Canadians 37:25, which also results in a goal average of 3.87 goals for the Lightning. So over-goals should also be a nice betting option for Wednesday.

In addition to plenty of total goals, however, the odds on the Lightning are worthwhile in every way for the Tampa vs Edmonton betting pool. Both pure win bets and bets on Tampa -1.5 or Tampa in third No.1.

Tampa Bay Lightning – Edmonton Oilers Pick

Not only are the Lightnings clearly better on paper, they have also been able to rest seven days in a row recently, while the Oilers have had to play three games in that time. This is one of the reasons why the betting companies are making out a big favourite status here.

We agree with them, however, and would recommend betting on the Lightning + Over 5.5 goals for Tampa vs Edmonton. Both options are so likely that they are still promising together – with excellent value.

General over-points are also an option as a betting alternative. The Oilers have had severe defensive problems of late and the Bolts are still scoring 3.41 goals per game. Both of these factors point to a high-scoring game. In the match between the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Edmonton Oilers, the associated betting odds are quite fair.