Two NHL teams heading in very different directions will meet in Vancouver on Wednesday night.
While the Vancouver Canucks can seemingly do no wrong, the New York Islanders are in the thick of a five-game losing streak and are in danger of having their season go off the rails before Thanksgiving.
A win in Vancouver on the first night of a back-to-back would be a big step in the right direction for the Isles, but oddsmakers have made them a clear underdog against the red-hot Canucks.
Should bettors take a shot on the Isles as a +136 underdog in Bo Horvat’s return to Vancouver?
Islanders vs. Canucks prediction
Sitting with the fourth-best record in the league and riding an 8-1-1 stretch, life is good for the Vancouver Canucks right now.
The Canucks’ stars are in great form, their goaltenders have been terrific and they are also taking advantage of some good puck luck.
And while Vancouver was winning despite some poor underlying metrics — especially defensively — in the early going, the Canucks have cleaned things up a bit of late.
Vancouver may not be dominating the territorial battle at 5-on-5 for the most part, but that isn’t a big deal when you have star players like Elias Pettersson, Quinn Hughes and JT Miller playing at an elite level and goaltenders who are doing the same.
The Islanders also don’t have great 5-on-5 numbers, but they do imply that the Isles are playing a bit better than their record suggests. At the very least it’s fair to say that their overall process hasn’t been so bad that they’re deserving to be on a five-game losing streak.
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Islander games have generally followed a familiar pattern of late: The Isles play a decent first 40 minutes and then make a critical mistake or two in the third period to tank their effort.
And since the Isles struggle to score, one mistake is usually all it takes for this team to lose a game. It’s hard to find any silver linings for the Islanders right now, but they should enjoy at least some positive regression when it comes to finishing at some point. The Isles own the league’s second-worst shooting percentage overall and have scored on 4.9% of their shots at 5-on-5 in their last six contests.
The Islanders’ lack of scoring ability is well-documented, but it’s hard to imagine that these numbers don’t tick up over the next few weeks.
Things don’t look great for the Islanders right now, but that is often the best time back a time when you’re betting the NHL for long-term success. This is a classic buy-low, sell-high spot, and a play on Horvat to get on the board in his return to Vancouver isn’t a bad look either.
The Bet: Islanders (+136, BetMGM)