Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Chicago Blackhawks Prediction, NHL Odds
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Edgar Chaput
Chicago finally vanquished a foe on their Canadian travels Friday night by storming back to defeat the Senators 4-3 in overtime. Toronto played Saturday against its arch-rival Montreal and emphatically won 5-1.
As per the NHL odds, the Maple Leafs are deemed -127 favourites on the puck line, with the over-under established at 6.5 goals.
Maple Leafs vs. Blackhawks NHL Betting Odds
For clubs that don’t play each other very often given their placements in different conferences, the current editions are familiar with one another. They tussled in Ontario just this past Wednesday. Two goals were shared apiece within minutes, but it was only a tease as the Leafs dominated the rest of the way, winning 5-2. The result improved Toronto’s win streak over the Illinois club to three games.
After experiencing mildly troubled waters starting in late January, Sheldon Keefe’s side has skated to victory three times in four opportunities. The squad has performed admirably away from home, sporting a 12-8-4 road record. Even though the team’s offence makes it tempting to play the Over in their contests, they’ve clamped down defensively against the lesser opposition, actually leading to a couple of recent Unders winning (Columbus and Montreal).
A win is a win, and Friday night’s win surely felt good. Even so, Chicago’s pedestrian season has resulted in seven defeats in the last 10 games. The 5-1 stomping of Calgary on Jan. 26 feels like a minor miracle when considering that they themselves have received a good pounding as of late. Five of the seven losses we mentioned were by three goals or more. When things go bad for the Hawks, they tend to go really bad.
Toronto Maple Leafs
If one considers the talent and statistical discrepancies between the Canadiens and Maple Leafs, then defeating Montreal 5-1 shouldn’t mean much. If one considers that the Habs have acted like the Boogeyman against the Leafs, then it felt amazing.
Funnily, it was Montreal who got on the board first through Josh Anderson’s second-period goal. Jake Allen had stood tall during the opening 20 minutes, which gave the visitors a ray of hope. Said ray was clouded before the middle frame ended with Michael Bunting earning a brace (17th and 18th) and Pierre Evengall netting his 12th. Toronto outskated and out hustled Montreal for most of the night. The end result was put beyond doubt less than four minutes into the third period when Auston Matthews glided a pass across the Montreal net to William Nylander who tapped in it slickly to make it 4-1. Toronto was far and away the better side, operating like the machine they can be when they play their game.
Chicago Blackhawks
After resounding defeats to Montreal and Toronto, the Blackhawks had one more opportunity to make something of their week north of the border when they played Ottawa Friday night.
They flipped the script of Wednesday’s defeat to the Leafs by scoring a surprisingly early goal rather than coughing one up. Max Domi fed Patrick Kane – who may or may not be a Maple Leaf in a few days – to open the club’s tally only 44 seconds into the contest. From there the hosts scored three straight goals, including two beautiful displays of skill and teamwork that led to goals by Claude Giroux (22nd) and Brady Tkachuk (23rd). 3-1 Senators with less than a period to play. Chicago was cooked, right? Wrong! Sam Lafferty (10th) startled Ottawa with a breakaway, shorthanded goal before Patrick Kane (11th) score again to send the game to overtime. Andreas Athanasiou (12th) rewarded Petre Mrazek’s heroic goaltending with the winner, giving the Blackhawks a shock 4-3 extra-time victory.
