NHL Hockey Betting: Vancouver Canucks at Edmonton Oilers

There are three Canadian NHL teams in action tonight. Unfortunately the only thing at stake for them is to avoid finishing with the worst record in their respective conferences and in the league. In this preview we’ll take a look at the bottom game on a three game betting board as the Edmonton Oilers take on the Vancouver Canucks. For the Oilers, this is actually a big event in franchise history as it’s the last regular season game in Rexall Place which has been their home rink since 1974. During the pre-naming rights era it was known as Northlands Coliseum and the Wayne Gretzky led Oilers won five Stanley Cups there. The team will move into a swanky new building in downtown Edmonton next year.

The emotional subtext just underscores the importance of this game to the Oilers who were blasted by everyone from their head coach to the local media after their pitiful showing in a 5-0 loss to Calgary last time out. The mood of the city has gone from this being a team with a ton of talent that just needs to shore up things at a few positions to the only option being a complete overhaul of the team. At one point, every Oilers’ fan and pundit had their own opinion of which players should be kept and how to best leverage the talent on hand. Now, the growing belief is that the team needs to be ‘blown up’ with everyone except Connor McDavid on the block. While the truth may be somewhere in between this is why the mood of the fans in Canada’s Oil City is growing increasingly hostile.

This is a definite ‘letdown spot’ for Vancouver who is just off a somewhat surprising yet impressive three game winning streak. From March 14 through the end of the month the Canucks lost nine straight scoring a total of six goals in the process. Since the first of the month they’re 3-0 with road wins at San Jose and Anaheim and a home win over Los Angeles. Credit for that but they can’t sustain that form and Edmonton knows that they have to ‘win or else’ in the last game in their old building.

BET EDMONTON OILERS -155 OVER VANCOUVER CANUCKS