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Charlie Grant
Ducks vs. Oilers Prediction: NHL Betting Odds
The Anaheim Ducks continue their tour of Alberta when they land in Edmonton on Saturday night. The Oilers’ big guns have been lethally accurate in the last week and a half, and the Ducks’ defence is playing like the season already ended. Sounds like the perfect recipe for Over bettors.
Ducks vs Oilers Betting Analysis
Anaheim lost 6-1 to the Calgary Flames on Friday night and snapped its three-game point streak in the process. Before Friday’s blowout loss, the Ducks had won four of six games, and they were even money or underdogs in each of those four wins.
The club is dead last in the league in goals per game (2.32), but there are signs the offence is coming to life. The Ducks have tickled the twine 13 times in their last four games. The bump in offensive production has been offset by the blueline falling apart. Anaheim has allowed four or more goals in each of its last three contests, and the Over is 4-0 in the team’s last four.
Edmonton lost in a shootout on Thursday night at home to the Dallas Stars. Despite the loss, the Oilers’ pushed their own point streak to four games by forcing extra time against the Stars. Edmonton still lost at home as a -270 favourite against Ottawa earlier this week.
The Ducks are 0-2 against the Oilers in 2019 but they did win a squeaker at home against them back in November. Anaheim is just 13-31 straight up in its last 44 games and 1-6 in its last seven spots playing on the second night of a back-to-back set.
Anaheim Ducks
There aren’t many positives to take from this season for Anaheim hockey fans. The club will miss the postseason for just the third time since 2002, and the first time since the 2011-12 campaign.
One of the reasons for their failure to secure a spot in the Stanley Cup playoffs is Rickard Rakell. The 25-year-old centre was Anaheim’s leading scorer in each of the last two seasons as he piled up 67 markers. But things didn’t pan out well for him in his sixth NHL season.
Rakell had just nine goals on the campaign entering the month of March. He’s since scored six goals – including four in his last four games. Anaheim hopes he can stay hot over the last three games this season and then see the scoring touch return for the 2019-20 campaign.
Edmonton Oilers
It’s easy to be upstaged when you play on the same team as Connor McDavid. That’s not what’s happening for Leon Draisaitl. The fourth-year forward has scored 20 goals in his last 27 games and is just two goals back of Alex Ovechkin for the league lead.
Draisaitl has tallied 10 points in his last four games while McDavid has nine during the same stretch. McDavid enters the final five games of the regular season trailing Tampa Bay forward Nikita Kucherov by seven points for pole position in the race for the Art Ross Trophy.
