{"id":460439,"date":"2025-01-09T11:36:33","date_gmt":"2025-01-09T16:36:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=460439"},"modified":"2025-01-09T11:36:33","modified_gmt":"2025-01-09T16:36:33","slug":"nhl-predictions-penguins-oilers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/01\/09\/nhl-predictions-penguins-oilers\/","title":{"rendered":"NHL Predictions: Jan. 9 Pittsburgh Penguins vs Edmonton Oilers"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a> host the Edmonton Oilers<\/a> in an exciting generational centre vs generational star matchup. Welcome back to NHL Predictions here on Last Word on Hockey! Each day, we provide in-depth analysis, insights, and predictions for all the NHL\u2019s games. In tonight\u2019s game, the Penguins look to contain the Oilers\u2019 duo of Connor McDavid<\/a> and Leon Draisaitl<\/a> while snapping their own losing skid.<\/p>\n

NHL Predictions<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Pittsburgh Penguins vs. Edmonton Oilers<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Head-to-Head:<\/strong>\u00a0Penguins 0-0 Oilers<\/p>\n

Time:<\/strong>\u00a07:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST)
\nTV:<\/strong>\u00a0; Sportsnet Pittsburgh; ESPN+, Sportsnet+<\/p>\n

Coming into their first matchup of the season, the Penguins and Oilers are in very different situations. Pittsburgh is fighting in a tight Metropolitan Division race, with half of the conference within an 8 point swing of each other. Meanwhile, the Edmonton Oilers sit second in the Pacific Division. They\u2019ve been building momentum, with a 7-2-1 record in their last 10, and are hoping to stave off the third place LA Kings.<\/p>\n

The Penguins\u2019 Story<\/strong><\/h4>\n

The Penguins dropped their third straight game in extra time against the Columbus Blue Jackets. As a result, the team is 17-17-8, tying the Columbus Blue Jackets in points with 42 in the second wildcard spot. Sidney Crosby<\/a> continues to lead the team in points, he has 44 points across 42 games this season. Rickard Rakell and Micheal Bunting continue to stay hot. Rakell had two goals against Columbus and has 20 on the season with 35 points in 42 games. Micheal Bunting has six points in his last six games, with 13 goals in 41 games on the season. Erik Karlsson<\/a>, on the defensive side of things, has been excellent, with back-to-back multi-point performances. He is up to 30 points in 42 games, on a nearly 60-point pace for the season. The Penguins offence will have to show up big against Edmonton to stand a chance against McDavid\u2019s Oilers.<\/p>\n

The Penguins will also need Tristan Jarry<\/a> to perform better than in the game against Columbus. He had an .897 save percentage, allowing the Blue Jackets to come back in the third period while holding a two-goal lead. With the offensive superstars in McDavid and Draisaitl in the game, Jarry will have to rebound quickly following the loss against Columbus.<\/p>\n

The Oilers\u2019 Story<\/strong><\/h4>\n

The Edmonton Oilers are soaring with a 25-12-3 record. Sitting second in the Pacific Division, Edmonton is also sporting a four-game winning streak coming off a 4-0 win against the Boston Bruins. The Oilers are led by two of the best players in the league, Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid. Draisaitl currently leads the Oilers in points, with 59 in just 40 games. Behind him, McDavid has scored 55 points in 37 games. Edmonton has also received solid depth scoring, with Zach Hyman and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins<\/a> being solid contributors. On defence, Evan Bouchard<\/a> has been dominant. He has 30 points in 40 games including seven goals from the blueline. Edmonton\u2019s incredible offence will be a significant factor against Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n

In net, Stuart Skinner<\/a> has played as well as the Oilers require of him. Last years run to the Stanley Cup Finals showed that Edmonton doesn\u2019t necessarily need their goaltender to stand on their heads for the team to win games. Skinner has a near-league average .902 save percentage. Even with this, he has a 16-8-3 record.<\/p>\n

NHL Predictions<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The Penguins desperately need a win. However, Edmonton possesses too much fire-power for a Pittsburgh team struggling to play good team defence. Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl will likely terrorize the weaker Penguins defensive group all game.<\/p>\n

NHL Prediction:<\/strong>\u00a0Oilers win 6-3.<\/p>\n

Prop Bet for the Night<\/strong><\/h2>\n

FanDuel\u2019s First Goal Scorer: Leon Draisaitl (+600)\u00a0\u2013 With 29 goals in 40 games, Leon Draisaitl has been scoring at will. Betting on him to score first offers solid returns.<\/p>\n

Main Photo: Perry Nelson-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Pittsburgh Penguins host the Edmonton Oilers in an exciting generational centre vs generational star matchup. Welcome back to NHL Predictions here on Last Word on Hockey! Each day, we provide in-depth analysis, insights, and predictions for all the NHL\u2019s games. In tonight\u2019s game, the Penguins look to contain the Oilers\u2019 duo of Connor McDavid […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5231,"featured_media":460457,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23,4547,4548,12,4524],"tags":[139,550,2720,193,5107,724,140,1790,477,714],"class_list":["post-460439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-oilers","category-hockey","category-nhl","category-penguins","category-nhl-predictions","tag-connor-mcdavid","tag-erik-karlsson","tag-evan-bouchard","tag-leon-draisaitl","tag-michael-bunting","tag-rickard-rakell","tag-sidney-crosby","tag-stuart-skinner","tag-tristan-jarry","tag-zach-hyman"],"modified_by":"Tommy Bennett","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5231"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460439"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460439\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":460458,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460439\/revisions\/460458"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/460457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}