Toronto Maple Leafs Face Carolina and Winnipeg, How they Match Up
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One of the disappointments of the NHL season has been the play of the Florida Panthers, a team that’s swimming around the .500 mark, at 21-20-4, currently out of a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference (four points back of Pittsburgh).
The Maple Leafs play them tonight in Toronto, coming off their 4-3 loss to the first-place Bruins Saturday night, a big mid-season test the Leafs couldn’t capitalize on.
Let's look at this game and the rest of the week to to give you NHL betting advice.
How Toronto Matches Up with the Panthers
The Panthers are 11th in the NHL in goals scored per game, at 3.27. It’s keeping them out of their net that’s been an issue – 12th-worst in the league, 3.38 goals against average.
Where does this leave the Leafs? Injuries aren’t as much a factor as much as a month ago. Defenceman TJ Brodie is still out with that rib injury. At the same time, Jake Muzzin, Carl Dahlström, Victor Mete and Nick Robertson (season-ending shoulder surgery, announced today) remain on LTIR.
DraftKings has the Leafs at -1.5 tonight (7 p.m. start time), currently taking 90 per cent of the handle there, 48 per cent of the bets. O/U is 6.5, and the Moneyline is Leafs 1.56 (getting 87 per cent of the handle and 82 per cent of the bets).
That tells you the betting public’s current lack of confidence when it comes to the Panthers. Their loss to Las Vegas last Thursday was a case in point: A one-goal lead in the third period, a two-man advantage, yet they manage to lose the game 4-2. So what is it? Bad coaching? Bad goaltending? No killer instinct?
G Sergei Bobrovsky is deeper down when it comes to goaltending stats on the year – 3.19 GAA, 12-13 record, .899 save percentage (35thin the league there). That won’t cut it for a guy pulling in $6 million USD per year.
Winnipeg Comes to Town Thursday, What About That Matchup?
Thursday night the Leafs host the Winnipeg Jets — a team that’s not getting enough attention for how well they are playing. According to FanDuel futures, their odds to win the Stanley Cup at the open of the season was +6000 but that’s now at +3800.
The Jets are first in the Western Conference — 29-14-1 — tied in points with the Leafs, at 59. G Connor Hellebuyck has been outstanding in goal — 2.37 GAA in 33 games, a .926 save percentage (1048 shots against, third in the league).
The Leafs will be in for a tough game, even at home. New coach Rick Bowness has squeezed out some great performances from the team’s core – Josh Morrissey on defence (plus 11), heading to the All-Star game, and Kyle Connor (21-32-53) and Pierre-Luc Dubois (20-29-49) upfront. They have 25 goals from their D corp, just one behind last season’s total for the entire season. They’re 10th in the NHL in power play percentage (24.2), and second in penalty kill percentage (83.9).
The Leafs currently have a 15-3-4 record at home this season, tied for third-best in the NHL. Michael Bunting had his seventh multi-point game of the season against the Bruins. Mitch Marner, with two assists against the Bruins, now has 11 points over his past eight games.
Defenceman Rasmus Sandin (flu) will not play tonight. Matt Murray gets the start in goal for the Leafs. Murray played against Boston, so one would have assumed it was Ilya Samsonov’s turn, but coach Sheldon Keefe has said he wants to get Murray more starts in goal.
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