Looking for one game to circle in the NHL Betting action this week? How about Edmonton at Pittsburgh on Saturday afternoon as superstars Connor McDavid of the Oilers and his boyhood idol Sidney Crosby of the Penguins renew their rivalry. Here’s a look at two interesting early-week matchups around the league. Check back for Mybookie NHL odds.
Top NHL Betting Picks of the Week – October 28th Edition
Edmonton Oilers vs Detroit Red Wings
- When: Tuesday, 7:30 PM ET
- TV:NHL Center Ice
- Live Stream: NHL.tv
The Detroit Red Wings were an early surprise in the NHL this season but they have fallen off a cliff, losing their eighth straight game Sunday, 5-4 in overtime to St. Louis. David Perron scored at 1:28 of OT. The Blues blew a two-goal lead in the third-period and needed Ryan O’Reilly’s late goal to send it to overtime. O’Reilly’s tying power-play goal came 23 seconds after the Red Wings took a too-many-men-on-the-ice penalty.
“Ultimately, it’s my bench, I’m responsible for it. Can’t have it. Gotta know who we’re changing for. We got players on the bench, we got coaches on the bench, there’s no way you can end up with a too many men,” Detroit coach Jeff Blashill said. “We’ve taken a couple here now, that’s a joke. There’s no possible way that that can happen at that point. So ultimately that’s my responsibility so I’ll take responsibility for it.”
The Red Wings made the Stanley Cup Playoffs for 25 straight seasons from 1990-91 to 2015-16. But they missed the playoffs each of the past three seasons, and this is already their third eight-game losing streak in a season since the calendar flipped to 2018.
“We all believe in each other, and the talk in the room in the past little bit is, it’s got to be the guys in here to turn this around and to get that win out of the way,” center Dylan Larkin said. “We were close tonight, but unfortunately against the defending Stanley Cup champions, close isn’t good enough.”
Important Numbers
The Red Wings rank near the bottom of the NHL in several major categories, including goals per game (2.25), goals against per game (3.75), power play (12.8 percent) and penalty kill (69.2 percent).
Edmonton has lost three of four following a 6-2 defeat at home to Florida on Sunday. McDavid had an assist in the loss. That gives McDavid six goals and 21 points in 12 contests this season. He’s in a three-way tie for second place in the scoring race. James Neal scored a goal; Neal has reached the 10-goal milestone in the month of October. That’s the same amount of October goals he had in 2011-12 when he went on to net 40 markers.
It’s the final meeting of the season between the Wings and Oilers. On Oct. 18, Edmonton beat visiting Detroit 2-1. Neal and Ethan Bear scored for the Oilers and Mikko Koskinen had 25 saves.
Minnesota Wild vs St. Louis Blues
- When: Wednesday, 8 PM ET
- TV: NBC Sports Network
- Live Stream: NHL.tv
First meeting of the season between Central Division rivals. The Blues as noted above come off a 5-4 overtime win in Detroit on Sunday in the second of a back-to-back. Winger Alexander Steen left with an injury but Coach Craig Berube doesn’t think it’ serious.
Left wing Sammy Blais (thumb) was unable to play on Sunday versus Detroit. He suffered a thumb injury against Colorado on Oct. 21 but was able to play on Saturday in Boston. Consider him day-to-day.
Jordan Binnington allowed four goals on 33 shots in Sunday’s win. Binnington now owns a 5-2-3 record with a 2.67 goals-against-average and a .912 save percentage this season.
Minnesota enters starting to play a bit better, winning three of four. It was a 5-1 victor over the Kings on Saturday. Alex Stalock turned aside 30 of 31 shots in the win. He has a 2-2-0 record, 1.98 GAA, and .928 save percentage in six games. No. 1 netminder Devan Dubnyk missed it with an upper-body injury but might be back for this one. Minnesota has found relief on home ice so far this season, winning three of its four games at Xcel Energy Center.
Overall, Minnesota will play 20 of its first 30 games on the road through Dec. 7. The feeling inside the dressing room is that if the club can start to bring some of that home success on the road, it could make a nice run during the home-heavy second half of the season.
Expert NHL Betting Picks
Wings end their skid and Wild beat Blues.
