Toronto Maple Leafs vs. New York Islanders Prediction, NHL Odds

Jordan Ramsay | Updated Jan 02, 2025

NHL: New York Islanders at Toronto Maple Leafs

The Leafs and Islanders finish a home-and-home on Thursday in New York, with Toronto looking to build off Tuesday's 3-1 win.

Toronto
33-20-2
AT
January 02, 2025, 7:30 PM ET
UBS Arena
NY Islanders
25-23-6-1
Puckline -1.5 +200
Moneyline -110
Over / Under o +6
Puckline +1.5 -250
Moneyline -110
Over / Under u +6

These teams just met on New Year’s Eve in Toronto, with the Leafs’ win breaking a long edge for the Islanders in head-to-head action.

This game is essentially a pick’em on the NHL odds, with the total listed at 6.0.

Maple Leafs vs. Islanders NHL Betting Odds

Toronto’s victory on Tuesday snapped a five-game win streak for New York in head-to-head action. The teams played at Scotiabank Arena twice in December, with the Islanders winning 6-3 10 days before the New Year’s Eve showdown.

Toronto has been solid on the road lately, winning four of their last five away dates. New York, on the other hand, sits a game below .500 at home this season and they lost five of their last seven games overall.

The trends lean heavily toward the Leafs in this game. Toronto is a solid 21-17 against the spread overall this season, while the Islanders are just 5-11 ATS at home.

Another trend for both teams has been high scoring games, with the Over hitting in five of the last seven head-to-heads. The Maple Leafs have also hit the Over in seven of their last eight games overall and New York has finished above the number in five of their last six home dates.

Toronto Maple Leafs

David Kampf, Steven Lorentz and John Tavares scored for Toronto on Tuesday, while William Nylander added two assists and Jospeh Woll made 30 saves. It was Kampf’s second goal in three games. Mitch Marner added an assist to his team-leading 51 points (13G, 38A). Woll (11-6-0, 2.48 goals-against average, .913 save percentage) appeared to be in minor discomfort early in the second period, but he stayed in the game and will start again on Thursday.

The biggest storyline for Toronto at the moment is easily the absence of captain Auston Matthews, who will miss his sixth straight game on Thursday after reaggravating an upper-body injury that forced him to miss nine games in November. It has to be concerning longterm for the Leafs as there is no real timeline for Matthews return and he has said he is unsure if he’ll be able to fully recover from the mystery injury at any point this season. Matthews scored a career-high 69 goals last season and he has produced 11 goals and 23 points in 24 games this season, his first as team captain.

New York Islanders

Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored the lone goal for the Islanders on Tuesday, while Ilya Sorokin stopped 22 of 24 shots faced. Noah Dobson picked up an assist, giving him 13 points in his last 11 games against Toronto. Dobson is coming off a breakout year that saw him finish with 70 points (10G, 60A) in 79 games, the seventh-highest scoring defenceman in the league. New York’s league-worst power play (11.1 per cent) finished 0-for-1.

Sorokin will get the start on Thursday. He’s had a heavy workload since fellow Russian netminder Semyon Varlamov went down with a lower-body injury in late November. Sorokin has started 14 of the Islanders’ last 15 games, going 6-6-1 with a 3.17 GAA and .884 SV in that span. Overall this season, Sorokin is 11-12-4 with a 2.92 GAA and .898 SV.

NHL Prediction: Who Will Win Maple Leafs vs. Islanders?

SportsInteraction