St. Louis Blues @ Edmonton Oilers – Saturday March 23, 2013 10:00PM EST
The online sports book experts do not think that the St. Louis Blues will catch the Chicago Blackhawks for top spot in the Western Conference before this shortened season ends. Then again, no one is going to catch the Chicago Blackhawks for top spot in the Western Conference before this season ends. For a while there, it looked like the Blues may be in danger of not making the playoffs. But St. Louis managed to scrape together enough offense to put itself at the top of the conference again. This is not the same, powerful St. Louis team we saw last year, but it is still a playoff contender.
The online sports betting world really never gave the young Edmonton Oilers a second thought before the season began. Even though the season is only 48 games long, the general consensus was that the Oilers would be out of playoff contention by the midway point. As it turns out, the Oilers are only two points out of a playoff spot with 20 games left to play. Edmonton even has a couple of games in hand over two of the teams it is chasing. The Oilers are making a go of it this season, and teams like the Blues may wind up in Edmonton’s wake.
St. Louis Blues
The St. Louis Blues could not buy a goal in the first week or so of the season. Some fans were wondering if this was the same team that played last year. When starting goaltender JaroslavHalak went down with an injury, the online betting world started to wonder if St. Louis would fade away. But the team hung in there and stayed competitive until Halak returned. Once the team had its starting goalie, it seemed like St. Louis started to play with a purpose and now it has jumped to fifth place in the conference.
Edmonton Oilers
The sportsbook experts still do not think that the Edmonton Oilers will go very far if the team makes the playoffs, and that is probably a fair statement to make. But any good coach knows that the first step to repairing a hockey team’s confidence is making the playoffs. That is why coaches of struggling teams allow their players to celebrate so much when the team makes the playoffs. That feeling is supposed to be contagious and it should make the Oilers want even more.
The Bottom Line
The Edmonton Oilers have dwelled at the bottom of the Western Conference for quite a while, but it looks like those days could be over. The Oilers have a 4-4-2 record in the last 10 games it played prior to this weekend, and that is about as stable as a team can get. The Oilers’ youth will have a lot to say in the outcome of what should be a pretty exciting game to watch.
Read more about the Edmonton Oilers and the changes the team has made.
Pick: Edmonton Oilers
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