Columbus Blue Jackets vs. Toronto Maple Leafs Prediction, NHL Odds
T oronto opened as a sizable -250 favourite on the NHL odds.
Blue Jackets vs. Maple Leafs NHL Betting Odds
Former Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock was supposed to be the new Columbus coach this season, but he resigned in mid-September under some controversial circumstances amid allegations into invading players’ privacy. The team promoted associate coach Pascal Vincent to the full-time head coaching job. Perhaps Vincent, from Laval, Quebec, will be a fine coach, but the Blue Jackets again are hugely disappointing and will miss the playoffs for a fourth straight year. Rough year in Columbus with Ohio State losing again to Michigan in college football, although the Crew recently won the MLS Cup.
Wednesday is the first of three meetings between the teams and they will all be complete by the night of Friday, Dec. 29 when the Leafs visit Columbus (also there on Dec. 23). Toronto won two of three last season and split at home. Mitchell Marner (4A) led the Maple Leafs with four points. No one else had more than two. Auston Matthews played in one of the three and had a goal. Joseph Woll split his two starts, and Ilya Samsonov pitched a shutout in his.
Kent Johnson (1G, 2A) led Columbus with three points in the series. Former Flames star Johnny Gaudreau had an assist. Elvis Merziklins, Jet Greaves and Joonas Korpisalo all started once in net, and Korpisalo is now with Ottawa.
Columbus Blue Jackets
Columbus has been off since a 5-2 home loss to Florida on Sunday and played that without top centre Boone Jenner after he fractured his jaw on Friday against St. Louis after taking a puck to the face. Jenner is on injured reserve and will miss about six weeks. The captain leads the team with 13 goals – no one else has more than nine – and is second with 18 points. He’s very good in the faceoff circle as the franchise’s all-time games played leader Jenner has won 305 faceoffs this season and has with a 55.9 per cent win rate in draws. Blueliner Erik Gudbranson took a game misconduct Sunday and is suspended for this one. He has two goals and eight assists. Centre Adam Fantilli, the No. 3 overall pick in this year’s draft, is away from the team due to a family emergency, and his status is unclear for Thursday. The Nobleton native has eight goals and eight assists in 30 games. No. 1 netminder Elvis Merziklins is on injured reserve, so it likely will be Spencer Martin (2-7-1, 3.57 GAA, .892 SV) here.
Toronto Maple Leafs
Toronto played easily one of its best games of the season Tuesday in the second of a back-to-back, winning 7-3 at the excellent New York Rangers and making former Vezina Trophy winner Igor Shesterkin look like an AHL backup. It was 4-1 after one period. New York scored twice in the second to make it interesting, but the Leafs dominated the third. Auston Matthews and Mitchell Marner each scored twice. Matthews joined Patrick Kane (13 straight seasons from 2007-08 to 2019-20) as the second U.S.-born player in NHL history to begin his career with eight or more consecutive 20-goal seasons. Matthews passed Rick Vaive (seven seasons from 1972-73 to 1980-81) for the fourth most consecutive 20-goal seasons in Maple Leafs history. Matthews also had two helpers for 13th career four-point game. The only players in Maple Leafs history with as many are Darryl Sittler (26), Marner (15), Frank Mahovlich (15), Borje Salming (13) and Lanny McDonald (13). Martin Jones made 28 saves in his first start for Toronto, which is 5-0-2 in its past seven. It should be back to Ilya Samsonov on Thursday. Young forward Matthew Knies was out with an illness. He has six goals and five assists and is day-to-day.
CLB
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