The Edmonton Oilers have a tough matchup tonight against the Pittsburgh Penguins at home, beating the Penguins is critical to continuing the hot streak the team has been on so far this year.
Three of the five losses the Oilers have had this season have come at the hands of teams in the eastern conference. Tonight is another matchup against an eastern conference team that the Oilers would like to send home without a victory.
Let’s jump in with a brief preview of the Penguins:
The Pittsburgh Penguins started the year off hot before middling out the past couple of weeks. They come to Edmonton tonight on a two-game losing streak losing to the Calgary Flames on Monday and the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday. They are currently on game two of a five-game road trip and their next matchup after tonight’s game will take them to Vancouver to play the Canucks.
So far this season the Penguins have been led by Jake Guentzel who has 19 points in 21 games including nine goals, and they also have been the beneficiary of a bounce-back season from 26-year-old netminder Tristan Jarry. Jarry has 10 wins on the year and has backstopped the team to a .938 save percentage and a goals-against average of 1.85, not bad numbers for a goalie who struggled last year.
The Penguins have a lot to prove tonight and the Oilers have a lot of players missing with injuries, including guys like Darnell Nurse, Cody Ceci, and Duncan Keith.
Here are the projected lineups for tonight from NHL.com:
The Pittsburgh Penguins:
Jake Guentzel — Sidney Crosby — Evan Rodrigues
Jason Zucker — Jeff Carter — Kasperi Kapanen
Zach Aston-Reese — Teddy Blueger — Brock McGinn
Dominik Simon — Sam Lafferty — Danton Heinen
Brian Dumoulin — Kris Letang
Marcus Pettersson — John Marino
Mike Matheson — Chad Ruhwedel
Tristan Jarry
The Edmonton Oilers:
Zach Hyman — Connor McDavid — Zack Kassian
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins — Leon Draisaitl — Kailer Yamamoto
Warren Foegele — Ryan McLeod — Jesse Puljujarvi
Tyler Benson — Derek Ryan — Colton Sceviour
Kris Russell — Tyson Barrie
William Lagesson — Evan Bouchard
Markus Niemelainen — Philip Broberg
Mikko Koskinen
While the Oilers are facing a lot of tough injuries there is no doubt they can still hang in this game tonight. Let’s go over the utilities and the betting odds for the game.
Game #21 Pittsburgh Penguins
Date: 12/1/2021
Opponent: Pittsburgh Penguins
Location: Edmonton
Time: 8 PM MT
TV: TNT
Live Stream: FuboTV
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Betting Odds: WynnBET
The Edmonton Oilers and the Pittsburgh Penguins betting odds on WynnBET have Edmonton as -1.5 point favorites tonight, while Pittsburgh is the underdog at +1.5. The Oilers are the favorite with a Moneyline odd of -120 on the night while Pittsburgh is sitting at +110. Tonight’s game is expected to be high-scoring with an over/under of 6 goals on the night.