Edmonton Oilers vs. New Jersey Devils: NHL Odds, Prediction

This game counts as Edmonton’s lone trip of the season to New Jersey. The Oilers have a Swede on the roster: young winger Jesse Puljujarvi, who had 12 goals and eight assists last season. New Jersey has a few players from Sweden, led by the No. 1 overall pick in the 2017 draft in Nico Hischier. He had 20 goals and 32 assists last year. Another young Swede, Jesper Bratt, broke his jaw in practice on Thursday and will be out a while. He had 13 goals and 22 assists in 2017-18.

NHL Odds and Betting Analysis

The Oilers and Devils played both meetings last year very early on and Edmonton won both. It was Edmonton 6-3 at home behind three assists from Connor McDavid. Drake Caggiula, Ryan Strome, Oscar Klefbom, Milan Lucic, Leon Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored. Cam Talbot had 31 saves. Cory Schneider had 36 stops for the Devils. More on him shortly.

In Newark, the Oilers won 3-2 in overtime on Draisaitl’s goal with 16.3 seconds to go in the extra period. Nugent-Hopkins had two assists and Talbot 32 saves. Schneider stopped 29 for New Jersey.

The past two Hart Trophy winners will be in this one. Of course, McDavid won the award in the 2016-17 season and former Oilers No. 1 overall pick Taylor Hall did last year – the first Devil to ever do so. He beat out fellow finalists Nathan MacKinnon of the Colorado Avalanche and Anze Kopitar of the Los Angeles Kings. Hall was the first forward to win the Hart Trophy without leading the league in points or goals since Joe Sakic of the Avalanche in 2000-01. Hall finished sixth with 93 points and ninth with 39 goals but was a big reason why the Devils were a playoff team when they were supposed to be rebuilding.

Edmonton Oilers

No team disappointed more than the Oilers in 2017-18 as they were preseason Western Conference favourites but finished with just 78 points and were outscored by 29 goals. Coach Todd McLellan enters this year on the hot seat, especially with two former NHL head coaches (Glen Gulutzan and Trent Yawney) added to his staff this offseason. Edmonton was quiet in free agency because it was right up against the salary cap due to the huge contracts of McDavid, Draisaitl and the horrible one of Milan Lucic. McDavid is worth every penny as he led the league in scoring again. The last player to win the Art Ross Trophy three seasons in a row was Jaromir Jagr, who did it four straight starting in 1997-98.

New Jersey Devils

New Jersey will be without its No. 1 goalie in Schneider for at least the opener as he had surgery to repair torn cartilage in his left hip May 1. Schneider missed 16 regular-season games last year with a groin/hip injury and then was terrible down the stretch, to the point he lost his job to Keith Kincaid. However, Kinkaid struggled in the first two rounds of the playoffs and was replaced by Schneider. He played well but the Devils lost in five to Tampa Bay. Kinkaid, who was 26-10-3 with a 2.77 GAA and .913 SV last year, will start Saturday.

Oilers vs. Devils Score Prediction

Oilers 4, Devils 3