Will Minnesota remain a force at home?
Final spurt in the NHL as the final three weeks of the Regular Season get underway. Both the Minnesota Wild and the Edmonton Oilers are in a comfortable situation as far as a possible play-off qualification is concerned.
While Leon Draisaitl and his Oilers are four points ahead of 9th place in the West, the Wild already have an eight-point cushion, including a game in hand. So both teams should already be able to plan for the postseason.
That doesn’t mean things will be easy on Tuesday, though, as the seeding order will also count in the end. No one wants to face the Avalanche in the first round, and the tough Golden Knights might not be the No. 1 seed either.
For Edmonton, it is also about ending a black streak against Minnesota, after all, the last five duels all went to the Wild. However, since the Wild are very strong at home, our forecast for Minnesota vs. Edmonton is again a home win for head coach Dean Evason’s men on Tuesday.
Minnesota Wild – Statistics & Current Form
The Minnesota Wild are going through curves this season. They started out strong, then had a little mid-season slump, but have come out of it since March. They have now won seven of their last ten games.
This improvement in form is even more evident at home, where they have won eight of their last nine games. Their only defeat came in an unfortunate overtime loss to the Penguins. At home in the Xcel Energy Center, the Wild are hardly to be defeated at the moment.
Wild one of the best home teams in the league
The goal ratio at home in recent weeks is also particularly impressive. With 32:17 goals they rarely gave their opponents a chance, against the Golden Knights Cam Talbot even kept his box completely clean.
Speaking of Talbot: He will play against his old team on Tuesday, where he did not work at all. He should therefore be doubly motivated to prove once again that he is better than he showed back in Canada.
Wild ahead of Oilers in many stats
We can also back up the Wild’s favourite status with some stats. Minnesota scores 0.19 goals more per game than Edmonton and concedes 0.07 goals less. Thus, they also have an 18-goal better goal differential than the Canadians.
Together with the home advantage, this leaves no other conclusion that the Wild should win this game. For Minnesota against the Wild, a bet on the home team is therefore our clear betting recommendation, especially since simple win bets already provide good value.
Key Players:
G: Cam Talbot
D: Jonas Brodin
D: Jared Spurgeon
LW: Kirill Kaprizov
C: Ryan Hartman
RW: Mats Zuccarello
Edmonton Oilers – Statistics & current form
Point by point the Oilers are crawling closer and closer to a playoff qualification and even if they lost the last game at home – against the Colorado Avalanche this can easily happen. Nevertheless, they still managed to pick up at least one point there.
That makes a total of 90 points, a number that was already enough for the playoffs during the last “normal” 2018/19 season. This year, that might not be the case, but we assume that 98 points should be enough in any case.
Draisaitl is behind in the goal scoring race
There has been a bit of a setback on Edmonton’s side in recent days, though. The goal-scoring crown is now almost out of reach for Leon Draisaitl , who is currently eight goals behind Auston Matthews.
While Matthews is currently scoring at least once in every game, Draisaitl was set back by an injury suffered in the Ducks game. He then missed one game and in the following two games he also seemed to be still slightly handicapped and remained scoreless.
Away Games as Bonus Games
The Oilers now have nine games left to pick up the remaining points, but that’s where they’ll likely need to come up trumps, especially at home. With five home games left, that should be easier than away. Especially with the Wild so strong at home, every extra point would be an encore.
We don’t expect them to end their losing streak against Minnesota on Tuesday and see the odds on the Wild vs. the Oilers as more promising. However, since Edmonton should still score a goal or two, over-point bets are still an option.
Key Players:
G: Mikko Koskinen
D: Darnell Nurse
D: Cody Ceci
LW: Evander Kane
C: Connor McDavid
RW: Kailer Yamamoto
Minnesota Wild – Edmonton Oilers Direct Comparison / H2H-Balance
Two times this matchup has occurred this season and both times the Wild have been successful. Not only that, but both games ended very clearly. In December Edmonton lost 1:4 at home, in February even 3:7 against the fearful opponent.
The Oilers also failed to beat Minnesota the two years before that, so their last win against the Wild dates back to February 2019 – that was even before the pandemic. Given the Wild’s current form, it is doubtful that this negative streak will come to an end on Tuesday.
For example, the betting odds on the home team are blessed with value for the Wild against the Oilers. Since they are also one of the five highest-scoring teams in the NHL, we can also confidently speculate on a few Wild goals. It should certainly be over three on Tuesday.
Minnesota Wild – Edmonton Oilers Tip
The Wild score more goals and concede less than the Oilers. They are also four points ahead of them in the standings and are one of the two best home teams in the Western Conference. We don’t think we need any more reasons to justify betting on the home team.
We therefore also warmly recommend these, whereby for Wild vs. Oilers a tip on victory without handicap is sufficient to generate a good value. For more risk-averse bettors, however, combined bets with over 5.5 goals are also an interesting option.
One betting alternative for this match is undoubtedly the Over Points option. In the last four meetings between these two teams, an average of 8.5 goals per game has been scored. Tips on Over 5.5 or even Over 6.5 should therefore also be included in our considerations.
