Posted on
10/26/2007 12:48:09 PM
Hockey Betting - Injuries hamper Oilers, Ducks
By BetUS Staff
The NHL season isn’t even a month old yet and already the warriors of the rinks are falling prey to the injury bug right around the league. Fans of NHL betting have had to pay attention to the injury reports before making their picks.
Not much was really expected out of the Edmonton Oilers this season and things got even worse in Alberta’s capital last week after their blue line was decimated by injury. In the offseason the Oilers tried to upgrade their defensive core by adding veteran defenseman Sheldon Souray and potential star Joni Pitkanen, but both will be on the shelf for the next little while. Souray is out for four weeks after suffering a shoulder injury, while Pitkanen is out indefinitely after suffering a knee injury on a big hit last week. The Oilers were already coping without speedy winger Fernando Pisani, who is out with colitis.
Another team that has had their fair share of injury troubles early on is Anaheim. The Ducks had to start the season without the services of goaltender Jean-Sebastian Giguere after the Conn Smythe winner had offseason surgery to fix a sports hernia. Also missing the beginning of the season was offseason acquisition Mathieu Schneider after the veteran blueliner suffered a broken ankle.
Giguere has since returned between the pipes, but Schneider is still out and has been joined on the sidelines by Todd Bertuzzi and Ryan Getzlaf. Bertuzzi is out indefinitely with a concussion, while Getzlaf has an upper body injury that is expected to keep him off the ice on Thursday. The Ducks’ slow start has had them come up short compared to where you would expect them to be in the BetUS NHL odds in most games so far this season.
Some other long-term injuries bettors should be aware of include Sean Avery (shoulder) and Martin Straka (hand) for the Rangers, Darcy Tucker (knee) and Kyle Wellwood (groin) for Toronto, Martin Havlat (shoulder) for Chicago, and Erik Cole (ankle) for Carolina.
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