NHL Hockey Betting: Edmonton Oilers at Toronto Maple Leafs

The big storyline in this game will be the first head to head meeting of the past two #1 draft picks. Toronto’s Auston Matthews is off to a very solid start and you may have heard of last year’s top draft pick, a kid named Connor McDavid. McDavid was impressive in his rookie season despite a lengthy absence due to an injury but has blossomed into a full fledged superstar this year. He’s currently leading the NHL in points with 12 (5 goals and 7 assists) which is a 1.71 points per game average. He’s improved his two way game and is +8 on the season. Not bad for a 19 year old.

Edmonton is off to a great start this season winning 7 of their first 9 games. They did have a five game win streak broken last time out losing to Ottawa at home 2-0. What has been most surprising about Edmonton this season has been their defense and goaltending. Cam Talbot has been exceptional in net and the Oilers are tied for the #5 goals against per game in the NHL at 2.11. They still give up too many shots on goal (31.3) but the defense is clearly improving and Talbot’s epic form has mopped up most of their mistakes. Last year they could be dangerous if you got them into an uptempo ‘video game style’ hockey game. This year they’re becoming a real hockey team and a surprisingly good one given their struggles in recent years.

Auston Matthews has been as good as expected but the Maple Leafs are still a work in progress. The goaltending has been an issue and Toronto is allowing 3.78 goals per game, #28 in the NHL. Frederik Andersen has been a bit of a disappointment in net though in all fairness he played behind a significantly better defense with Anaheim. In general, things look to be heading in the right direction in Toronto but given where these teams are at now it looks like a mismatch. Toronto has lost a whopping -38.9 units in the last three seasons and are 0-3 against the West this year. Oilers could be a value for awhile–the public still has a bad taste in their mouth about Edmonton but they’re not getting the respect they deserve in the betting marketplace. We’ll take the very reasonable road price on the substantially better team.

BET EDMONTON OILERS -105 OVER TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS