Capitals vs. Oilers NHL Preview and Best Bet (Archive)
The Capitals skate into Edmonton after dousing the Flames last night while the Oilers will try to snap a three-game losing streak in front of the fan friendlies. Let’s analyze this matchup and keep cashing our NHL picks!
Washington Capitals vs. Edmonton Oilers
Wednesday, March 09, 2022 – 08:00 PM EST at Rogers Place
The Capitals have now won three straight after a 5-4 win over the Flames in Calgary last night. Washington had fallen behind 2-0 midway through the second period before Conor Sheary lit the lamp with an unassisted goal. Alex Ovechkin would net his 35th of the season three minutes later to knot the score at two heading into the final stanza.
Anthony Mantha and Nic Dowd would go on to tally for Washington while Ovechkin scored his second goal of the night to help the Caps begin their three-game road swing in winning fashion. Ovechkin is now tied with Jaromir Jagr for third on the NHL’s all-time goal-scoring list with 766 trailing only Gordie Howe (801) and Wayne Gretzky (894).
“Obviously, it’s always nice to hear those kinds of milestones, numbers,” Ovechkin said. “It’s pretty big, obviously, and how I always said, being with those names and in this company, it’s a pretty cool moment.”
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“I couldn’t believe that one got blocked at the end, but it was awesome,” said center iceman Nic Dowd. “Obviously, we’re super excited for him and guys are trying to find him all over the ice and just to be a part of it and simply watch it, he’s the best. So really happy for him.”
The meeting with the Oilers is Washington’s second of a three-game Western Canada road swing and will culminate with a game against the Canucks on Friday. The Capitals have outscored their opponents 14-6 during their modest winning streak.
Oilers Flame in Calgary
While the Caps took care of business against the Flames last night, the same cannot be said of how the Oilers fared against Calgary at the Saddledome on Monday evening. Devin Shore notched Edmonton’s only goal of the game early in the third period to cut Calgary’s lead in half, but Johnny Gaudreau put the game out of reach when he tallied late to ice the 3-1 victory.
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Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl failed to get on the scorer’s sheet and Draisaitl commented on it after the game. “You can’t expect Brad Malone to come in here and score three goals tonight, right? That’s our job. That’s on Connor, that’s on me, that’s on the top guys that are getting paid to create. Probably didn’t do enough of that tonight.”
“We played a solid game I think, but you’re not going to win many games when you score one goal,” Draisaitl said. “I don’t think it’s ever a question of competing or battle level. We’re playing our hearts out.”
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These clubs have faced each other only once this season, a 5-3 Edmonton victory back on February 2nd in which Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored the final two goals late in the game to give the Oilers the victory.
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On the surface, these are two evenly matched teams, both with potent offenses but Edmonton is defensively challenged, tipping the scales in Washington’s favor. However, the Caps played last night and it’s never a great idea to make a steady diet of backing teams on the second leg of back-to-back games.
Washington’s Vitek Vanecek has started the last four games in net and will almost certainly be sitting this one out. This bodes well for Edmonton as Ilya Samsonov will likely be tending the twine for the Caps and he has not been performing well lately, losing his starting role to Vanecek.
The NHL odds on this game show the Oilers as high as a -130 favorite but we can get a much sharper number over at BetOnline (visit our BetOnline Review). Let’s back the home team and watch them repeat their winning performance against Washington from five weeks ago.
NHL Pick: Oilers (-119) at BetOnline
*The line and/or odds on picks in this article might have moved since the content was commissioned. For updated line movements, visit BMR’s free betting odds product.