Odds still favour Edmonton Oilers despite trailing in Vancouver Canucks series

There's no getting around how crucial Tuesday night's clash at Rogers Place is for the Edmonton Oilers. Win, and they go back to Vancouver with their series tied at 2-2; lose, and they return to enemy territory facing the prospect of being eliminated by the Canucks in just five games.

This is not how it was meant to go, for arguably the strongest Oilers roster of the Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl era. However, it appears not all hope is lost, at least from the perspective of the oddsmakers who, as we previously wrote, had the Oilers as favourites to beat the Canucks prior to the beginning of their second round series.

Consider that both DraftKings and FanDuel still have the Oilers as fourth-favourites to lift the Stanley Cup this season. DraftKings offer odds of +700 at the time of writing, while FanDuel have them at +600.

With both sports betting companies, they have the Florida Panthers, Dallas Stars and New York Rangers ahead of the Oilers. Interestingly though, while DraftKings have the Panthers as overall favourites, FanDuel are picking the Stars.

Oilers still favoured to beat the Canucks

What is really intriguing though, is that both DraftKings and FanDuel have the Canucks listed as sixth favourites to lift The Holy Grail. It seems that despite being ahead two games to one and with home-ice advantage in hand, the belief remains that the Oilers will respond and eventually advance to the Western Conference Final.

This belief extends to game four on Tuesday night in Edmonton specifically, with both oddsmakers having the Canucks as 1.5 goal underdogs to win. Certainly you can appreciate this, when the Oilers have the best player in the game, as well as another who is regularly in the top 5-10 in the NHL.

At the same time though, this does play into the ongoing narrative that the media, fans, etc, have continually underestimated the Canucks all season long. And yet they have continued to defy the odds -- no pun intended -- and just kept winning,

Further, let's not leave out the fact that the Canucks are 6-1-0 so far in 2023-24 versus the Oilers, in the regular season and playoffs combined. And of vital importance, this includes winning all three games so far in Edmonton, where Tuesday night's critical game will take place.

Overall, we appreciate it's not often that the oddsmakers get these type of things wrong, which of course we subjectively hope is the case with the Oilers and the Canucks series. However, we can't help but be concerned the Canucks will just continue doing what they've done throughout the 2023-24 campaign and ultimately leave the Oilers' Stanley Cup dream in tatters yet again.

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