New York Islanders vs Edmonton Oilers Prediction: Expect a productive match

Prediction for the NHL match which will take place on December 20. Who will turn out to be stronger? Check the team conditions! Several betting options are available.

The Islanders have had a bad start to the current regular season. They started to lose points from the very first games, and in November, they had a seven-game losing streak. It looked like the Islanders were in for another disappointing season, but they gradually began to improve. In the next 13 games, they went scoreless only once, losing to New Jersey 3:4, losing three more times outside of regulation time, and winning nine of those games to improve their standing. The previous day, the Blue and Orange suffered another defeat, falling to Montreal 3:5, but they remained in sixth place in the Eastern Conference standings.

Edmonton is another team that has enough problems. Already in the debut of the regular season, the Oilers suffered numerous defeats: in 12 starting meetings, they suffered ten defeats with two wins. Of course, such poor results led to the resignation of Jay Woodcroft, and Kris Knoblauch was appointed as the new head coach. Under his leadership, things started to improve for the Blue and Orange; their star hockey players finally got in decent shape, and at the same time, they started to gain points. They had an 8-game winning streak, but in the last two games, they still lost to Tampa Bay and Florida - 4:7 and 1:5, respectively, dropping to 13th place in the Western Conference standings.

The Islanders currently sit higher than Edmonton in the NHL standings, but the Oilers approach the upcoming contest in more solid form. In eight of the last ten games, the Canadian team has won; the leaders have finally started to show themselves and give results, and therefore, in the upcoming battle, the Islanders will have an extremely difficult time. In the last two head-to-head meetings, the New York club lost 2:4 and 1:4, and now they don't look like favorites.

In recent years, we have become accustomed to the Islanders being a team about pragmatism, defense, and unpleasantness for opponents' hockey. We saw the same thing in the opening period of the current regular season, but things have changed dramatically recently. In the previous ten games, the New York team scored and conceded 80 pucks (8.00 average per game). The Oilers also have several goals over a similar distance - 69 (6.90 average per game).