NHL Best Bet: Friday April 22nd

The Edmonton Oilers will play host to the Colorado Avalanche on Friday night as mounting injuries for the road team could prove costly. The line setters are attempting to lead you into thinking that the Avalanche are the better team and our resident NHL expert Ej Garr is here to tell you otherwise.

NHL Best Bet: Friday, April 22nd

• Edmonton vs Colorado: Oilers to win (OT incl)

Odds as of 9 am April 22, 2022. Odds may now differ.

Edmonton Oilers vs Colorado Avalanche Best Bet

April 23, 02:00 UK time

The Avalanche are the team playing for the NHLs best record but that doesn’t mean they will every game down the stretch of the regular season, especially on the road. First of all, injuries to a pair of big point producers are out of this lineup and that includes the Avs’ leading goal-scorer and points leader, Mikko Rantanen.

Rantanen sat out of the last game which ended up being a 3 – 2 loss to Seattle and an old friend was found contributing to those scoring issues. Philipp Grubauer made 25 saves for the Kraken and, of course, he spent the previous 3 campaigns wearing an Avs uniform before becoming a free agent. Colorado and Grubauer couldn’t agree to terms and he ended up signing a 7-year deal to play in the great northwest instead.

With Rantanen out, Gabe Landeskog is also going to be out of the Colorado lineup after knee surgery last Monday. Landeskog is expected to be out for another month to miss the first series and the two of them do a lot of damage on offense when they are healthy. Rantanen has accumulated 91 points (36 & 55) and Landeskog has gathered 59 points (30 & 29) which puts all of the pressure on Mackinnon, Makar, and Kadri to produce points.

Their absence is going to hinder the chemistry of what is left in place and we just saw the evidence of it last time out. Sure, Grubauer was motivated to beat his old squad but the Avs just lost back-to-back games and this is not the right time of year for a loss to Seattle.

Florida and Colorado are tied with 116 points for the President’s Trophy and the two of them are the only teams that have the chance to claim the honor. The Panthers and Avs are both well clear of the rest of the pack in their respective conferences that they cannot be caught so either Colorado or Florida will get home ice throughout the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Meanwhile, have you happened to notice what Edmonton is doing at Rogers Place lately? The Oilers have taken wins from 11 of their last 12 games here and their only loss came in a shootout against…? You guessed it, these Avs on April 9 in a 1 – 1 game that was tightly contested and down to the wire.

For me, the absence of Rantanen and Landeskog is going to cause more scoring issues and when you play the Oilers on the road you better have a team that can score. The line setters want to lead you in the wrong direction making Colorado favored, so with a nice 2.05 offer on the home team we can cash another hockey ticket.

Revenge should play a role in the outcome of this tilt as the Avs have taken both of the previous meetings with Edmonton and they must avoid the sweep to maintain that 5 seed in the Western Conference standings.

• Selection: Edmonton Oilers to win (OT Included)
• Best odds: 2.09 (Marathonbet)
• Stakes 4/10

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