The NHL Edge: Edmonton Oilers vs. Calgary Flames
The Battle of Alberta always seems to produce unique hockey games, and it’s hard to expect anything different tonight with the Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames colliding once again. The longtime western rivals have already played six times on the season with four more games left on the schedule, including tonight’s contest. In the season series so far, we’ve seen Edmonton take four of six games over Calgary. Mike Smith has played very well in the Oilers’ crease this season and looks to be completely rejuvenated. He’s expected to start for Edmonton tonight, while Calgary will likely go with Jacob Markstrom in goal.
The over-under for tonight’s contest is set at 5.5 at FanDuel’s Sportsbook, with the under having substantially better value at +118. It’s not a surprise that the over is gaining so much traction at -148 as four of six games between these clubs have produced at least seven goals, including their last meeting where we saw ten goals scored in the game. There really isn’t much value in taking the over, though, so it’s easy to look at the under and hope that both goaltenders show up in this game. If it doesn’t move off much from +118 throughout the day, it’s something you should strongly consider on your board.
On the puck line, the Oilers are the favorite at +172, to cover -1.5 goals. It’s worth a look as Edmonton has two of their four victories by multiple goals over Calgary this season. The Flames are coming off of a shutout loss to Montreal where they put up just 16 shots on goal, so their offense could be out of sync right now. That gives reason to believe the Oilers on the puck line could be the play here as long as it doesn’t rise above +150. Calgary has a difficult time putting the puck in the back of the net, so if they do score, it likely won’t be enough to cover that.