NHL's Western Conference Best Bets for Thursday

The Minnesota Wild and Edmonton Oilers will both head on the road tonight, with a chance to extend their respective series to a Game 7.

Below, you can look at both Western Conference games on tonight’s NHL slate and at some of our best bets on the FanDuel Sportsbook.

The Wild let Game 5 slip away at home after leading 2-1, before ultimately allowing four straight Blues goals for a 5-2 St. Louis victory. Vladimir Tarasenko was tremendous in the third period for the Blues, recording a natural hat trick to give his team a chance to wrap up the series tonight at home. The Blues have had the Wild’s number of late and despite Minnesota keeping this series relatively close, the underlying numbers show that St. Louis has been the better team.

With so many scoring options on this Blues team, it’s difficult for the Wild to game-plan, especially on the road, where Craig Berube and the Blues will have last change. St Louis won a Stanley Cup in 2019 and a lot of that core still remains, along with plenty of young talent that has developed into star players like Jordan Kyrou and Robert Thomas. The Blues are the better team in this series, and they’ll likely prove it tonight on home ice, crushing Minnesota’s Stanley Cup dream.

Best Bets: Blues moneyline (-110)

The Kings stunned the Oilers in Game 5 on home ice, where Adrian Kempe scored his second of the game in overtime to give LA a 3-2 series lead. The Oilers were sizable favorites to advance to the second round but they’ll have their work cut out for them on the road, where they have managed to split two games in this series, including an 8-2 blowout.

The Oilers will be missing a key defenseman tonight after Darnell Nurse was suspended one game for headbutting Phillip Danault in Game 5. This is a game where the Edmonton’s best players are going to need to show up and they’ll need an even better effort from Mike Smith. Despite their lack of success in the playoffs, doubting Connor McDavid and his ability to will a team to the second round isn’t something we should be doing right now. Expect the Oilers to find a way to advance to play a Game 7 on home ice.

Best Bets: Oilers moneyline (-140)