NHL Wednesday best bets: Oilers' struggles to continue vs. Maple Leafs
Tuesday night was a good one for our best bets. We successfully backed the Tampa Bay Lightning to take care of business inside regulation against the Columbus Blue Jackets. The underdog Nashville Predators also pulled off a small upset for us in Vegas.
While there are only a couple of games to work with on tonight's slate, there's still value on the board. Let's get into it.
Blues (+115) @ Penguins (-135)
I initially planned on writing up the Pittsburgh Penguins. They're not starting Tristan Jarry tonight, though, so the over is now more of interest.
The St. Louis Blues have scored in bunches all season as they rank fifth in goals per game. Pavel Buchnevich and Brayden Schenn returning tonight should only breathe more life into an already formidable attack.
Among goaltenders with at least seven starts, only five have given up more goals above expectation per start than Pittsburgh's Casey DeSmith. He's really struggled.
On the flip side, the Penguins are an above-average offensive team despite dealing with a vast amount of injuries and COVID-19 issues to key players all campaign. Jake Guentzel and Bryan Rust are back in the mix, which further bolsters their offense.
I think this game could feature plenty of scoring. While my lean is still with Pittsburgh, the over is more appealing.
Bet: over 6 goals (-125)
Oilers (+235) @ Maple Leafs (-300)
The Edmonton Oilers are an absolute mess right now. They've dropped 12 of their last 14 contests and scored only 37 goals in that span. Just five teams have found the back of the net fewer times.
A lack of depth surrounding the team's stars is a big reason they've struggled to score. Unfortunately for the Oilers, things aren't getting any easier. They'll be without Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (again), Tyson Barrie, and Connor McDavid tonight. Edmonton recently placed the latter two players onto the COVID-19 list.
Generating offense will now be even more difficult for an Oilers team already struggling.
It's a different story for the Toronto Maple Leafs. They enter play on a 7-2-1 run in which no team has scored more goals than the 47 they've amassed.
Edmonton's Mike Smith figures to be in for a long night, and not just because of the caliber of the opponent. He's performed poorly thus far, allowing 0.80 goals above expectation per start. Sure, it's a small sample size, but only seven netminders with at least five appearances have fared worse.
Toronto's red-hot offense should be able to stay hot against a skidding Oilers team missing several key players.
Bet: Toronto -1.5 goals (-125)
Todd Cordell is a sports betting writer at theScore. Be sure to follow him on Twitter @ToddCordell.