Face-off: 1900 ET, 22/02/2022
Arena: Canadian Tire Centre
Minnesota have been a bit hit and miss since the All-Star break but made a statement of intent when winning 7-3 at Edmonton on Sunday.
The Wild can hopefully now recover the consistency of an earlier 9-0-1 hot streak and they are taken to prove too strong for Ottawa.
We’re going with 6.5 for an away win by exactly two goals in our Ottawa Senators vs Minnesota Wild predictions.
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Ottawa Senators Odds
Ottawa have also been up and down during a 4-4-1 stretch of late and injury issues do appear to be hampering their progress.
The Senators are showing plenty of spirit but the lack of firepower up front was evident in a 3-2 loss to Boston and a 2-1 defeat by the New York Rangers.
Tim Stutzle marked his 100th NHL game by scoring on Sunday to make it three goals in five outings and 26 points for the season.
DJ Smith said of the German: “He looks confident, has the puck a lot, he’s shooting, he’s learning to play within the game. Offensively, he looks dangerous.”
However, a hectic schedule has been made even harder by the absence of key figures such as Drake Batherson, Josh Norris and Thomas Chabot.
Smith is hoping a return to three games a week after catching up on the Covid backlog will help clear things up, but Ottawa still look vulnerable for now.
We like 2.35 for an away win in regular time and over 5.5 total goals from the NHL odds on offer here.
Minnesota Wild Odds
Minnesota bounced back from losses to Winnipeg and Florida in fine style when thumping the Oilers at Rogers Place.
Edmonton were on a roll after five consecutive victories under new coach Jay Woodcroft but the Wild blew them away with four unanswered goals in the opening period.
Kevin Fiala scored two of them and commented: “We knew two defeats in a row is not good enough for us, so we started well.
“We’re not always going to win, but we don’t want to lose three in a row, so it was just a great response from us.”
Getting Nick Bjugstad back from injury was a welcome boost and Minnesota are clearly determined to build on that success.
Fiala added: “It’s always important to start a road trip the right way and we did, but this one we’re gonna let go now.
“We’re going to wake up and we’re gonna look forward and I feel strongly we can win all four, but we’ll take it game by game.”
Swiss winger Fiala now has 16 goals this term and 13.0 for him to open the scoring at Canadian Tire Centre completes our NHL predictions.
Additional stats
Last result:
OTTAWA 1-2 New York Rangers
Edmonton 3-7 MINNESOTA
Head-to-head: Minnesota 5-4 Ottawa
