Montreal Canadiens vs. Toronto Maple Leafs Prediction, NHL Odds
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Edgar Chaput
The Canadiens continue their brief road trip after getting blown away by the Hurricanes on Thursday. For its part, Toronto has stayed at home after doing on Wednesday what the Habs had done on Tuesday: pummel the poor Blackhawks.
Vegas has deemed Toronto as the favourite on the NHL odds. They’re -168 on the puck line, with the over-under sitting at 6.
Canadiens vs. Maple Leafs NHL Betting Odds
It’s no secret that for all the relative success the Maple Leafs have had over the past few seasons, curiously Montreal is one side they typically stumble against. Montreal has unashamedly captured four of the previous five tilts between these franchises. The Leafs have, however, won the last two played in front of their fans. Furthermore, more than once this season when the Canadiens have played on the road against teams that can light it up it got rather ugly.
Montreal sports the 28th-ranked offence in the NHL, netting only 2.65 goals per contest. While it the last few home games were impressive, the reality is the offence often goes stone-cold when away from the Bell Centre. Martin St. Louis’ men have put the puck in the net more than two times only once in their previous nine road games. It should come as no surprise therefore to learn that they’re also 1-8 in those games.
In stark contrast, Toronto is gifted with the eighth-best attack, netting 3.38 scores per outing. As we alluded to in the Blackhawks game preview, the Leafs need to click into a higher gear at this stage of the season. 5-4 in their last nine contests will not help them earn some home-ice advantage in the postseason. They benefit from a nice string of relatively easy games (twice against Columbus, Chicago twice, Montreal) and must take care of business, especially at home.
Montreal Canadiens
The Habs faithful hoped that the good vibes the club had evoked during their home stand bought a plane ticket to Carolina for Thursday’s tilt. Alas, the vibes missed their flight.
Things began brightly despite the outcome. Michael Pezzetta (fourth) cleverly used his hockey stick as a baseball bat to smack the puck mid-air on a juicy rebound to give the visitors an early 1-0 lead. The hosts, a vastly superior outfit, would not remain dormant much longer. On a night when former goalie Cam Ward was celebrated, the Canes began taking care of business in the first period, with former Hab Jesperi Kotkaniemi (ninth) haunting his former club with a scintillating equalizer. To some people’s surprise, the clubs were all square at 2-2 entering the final frame, but that’s precisely when Carolina worked up a storm, scoring four times, to say nothing of Seth Jarvis completing his hat trick on a beautiful short-handed breakaway goal. Hurricanes win, 6-2.
Toronto Maple Leafs
If the Habs could handle Chicago as easily as they did, surely the Leafs could as well. Simple answer: yes.
There’s starting fast and there’s starting FAST. Nine seconds into the contest William Nylander (30th) smoothly skated past some out of place and clumsy Chicago defenders and slotted the puck just under Petr Mrazek’s left skate. Surprisingly the Blackhawks equalized barely a minute later through a funky goal, but that was all the tension the evening would permit. The hosts were faster, more creative with their scoring opportunities, set up their plays more efficiently, and handled Chicago attacks with relative ease. Plenty of players were in on the action, with the likes of John Tavares (24th) and Auston Matthews (26th) adding to their impressive tallies, and Conor Timmins celebrating his second of the campaign. Toronto skates to a 5-2 win.
