Tampa Bay Lightning vs. Toronto Maple Leafs Game 2 Prediction, Odds
The Leafs are -162 favourites on the NHL odds for Game 2 on Thursday.
Lightning vs. Maple Leafs NHL Playoff Betting Odds
With Tampa Bay winning the opener 7-3 in quite stunning fashion, the three-time defending Eastern Conference champion Lightning are now -130 favorites on the series line with Toronto at +110. On the series handicap of -1.5 games, Tampa Bay is +120 and Toronto -145. The favoured exact series result is Leafs in both six and seven at +375, while a Lightning sweep is the +750 long shot.
The over-under for total games is 6.5, with the under a -225 favourite. That it ends in six games and seven are both +180 favourites. Tampa’s Brayden Point is now the +120 leader to be the series’ top goalscorer.
Last year, Toronto won Game 1 at home vs. Tampa Bay 5-0 and lost Game 2 by a score of 5-3. The total has gone over in eight of the past 10 meetings.
Tampa Bay Lightning
The Bolts jumped out to a 3-0 lead after one period in Game 1 and didn’t look back in the 7-3 win in the opener. Corey Perry was the No. 1 star with a goal and two assists, while Brayden Point was the No. 2 with two goals and Nikita Kucherov the No. 3 with a goal and two assists. Those latter two are proven playoff monsters. It was Kucherov’s 21st career postseason game with at least three points. That’s tied for fourth all-time. Wayne Gretzky’s record of 59 games is safe. Point reached 80 career playoff points in his 77th career playoff game. The only active players to reach the plateau in fewer games were Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon (59 GP), and Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby (59 GP) and Evgeni Malkin (66 GP).The Lightning were 4-for-8 on the power play. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 28 saves. The Bolts are 2-6 in their past eight road games.
Toronto Maple Leafs
Toronto did cut a 3-0 lead to 3-2 on second-period goals from Ryan O’Reilly and William Nylander, but then the Lightning scored four straight. Calle Jarnkrok had the game’s final goal. Mitchell Marner had three assists and Auston Matthews two. Ilya Samsonov was pulled after two periods after allowing allowed six goals on 29 shots. Joseph Woll played the third and allowed one goal on five shots. Do the Leafs make a change already in net for Game 2? It won’t matter if Toronto doesn’t improve on the penalty kill. Blueliner Erik Gustafsson didn’t play due to injury, and Michael Bunting will have a hearing with the Department of Player Safety for an illegal check to the head and interference against the Lightning’s Erik Cernak. The Leafs are 13-3 in their past 16 following a loss of three or more goals.
