Minnesota Wild vs. Edmonton Oilers Prediction, NHL Odds
The Edmonton Oilers begin a crucial four-game homestand when they host the stingy Minnesota Wild on Tuesday night.
Minnesota’s without a regulation loss since November 6 and it’s a product of elite goaltending. Jesper Wallstedt, who is Minnesota’s confirmed starter in net Tuesday, finished a perfect 6-0 in November with three shutouts and a .967 save parentage.
This makes Tuesday a strength-on-strength matchup as the Oilers offence starts to heat up. Edmonton’s coming off a 4-0 win on Saturday, and while the zero goals allowed is probably the more important improvement, the Oilers have now scored at least three goals in four of their last five outings and the big guns are again leading the way. Edmonton’s also well-rested, with Saturday their only game in the past seven days.
Puck drop at Rogers Place goes at 9 p.m. EST, with the Oilers a -160 moneyline favourite at home and the over-under at six on the NHL odds.
Wild vs. Oilers NHL Betting Odds
Minnesota’s seen eight of their last 10 contests finish under the total, which includes a trio of shutout wins. Edmonton’s trended toward the opposite as the over is 6-1 in their last seven home outings. Head-to-head, the over has hit in six of the last nine Wild–Oilers meetings.
Tuesday is just Edmonton’s 10th home appearance this season and Rogers Place has yet again become one of the toughest buildings to win at for visitors; the Oilers are 5-2-2 at home overall but are coming off some ugly losses in November, including an 8-3 defeat to Dallas last week. Minnesota hasn’t had much issue going up and winning at Edmonton too, coming out victorious in 14 of their last 18 trips to face the Oilers. The Wild are also 4-1 in their last five road outings, and just had a seven-game win streak snapped on Saturday.
Minnesota Wild
Four of Minnesota’s seven consecutive wins the latter half of November required overtime or a shootout, so when Saturday’s tilt with Buffalo went all the way to the shootout it seemed like the Wild were in a good spot. But they fell 3-2 and the seven-game streak is over. One streak that did live on was Kirill Kaprizov’s goal streak which is now at five. Kaprizov leads the team with 17 goals on the season, and 31 points are atop the Wild too. Mats Zuccarello has been a force on Minnesota’s top line with Kaprizov, with Zuccarello at 10 points in 11 games this year.
The Wild have been alternating goalie starts between Filip Gustavsson and Jesper Wallstedt, the NHL’s best duo at the moment, but it’s going to Wallstedt on Tuesday. In nine starts this season, Wallstedt has yet to lose in regulation and has a .938 save percentage.
Edmonton Oilers
The bounce back from Stuart Skinner this weekend has bought Edmonton’s shaky goaltending duo some more time, with goalie trade rumours running wild in Oilers world. Skinner picked up his second shutout of the season in the 4-0 win at Seattle, a huge bounce back for the Oilers overall after an 8-3 loss on Tuesday to Dallas. Skinner’s now started three straight games as he’s easily been Edmonton’s option in net despite the .885 save percentage.
Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Zach Hyman each had a goal and an assist in the win on Saturday. Draisaitl is now on an eight-game point streak and is now the second Oilers skater to reach 30 points, joining McDavid. In 26 career games against Minnesota, Draisaitl has scored 16 times.
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