Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Tampa Bay Lightning: NHL Odds, Prediction
Tampa Bay leads the season series vs. Toronto 2-1. The last meeting was also the lone one in Tampa thus far, a 4-3 Lightning victory in a shootout. Young Brayden Point, a Calgary native, scored the shootout winner. Frederik Andersen stopped 39 shots for the Leafs. Andrei Vasilevskiy had 27 saves for Tampa Bay and stopped Mitch Marner on a penalty shot with 6:02 left in the third to keep it tied. The Bolts were without the league’s leading scorer, Nikita Kucherov, for much of that one as he left injured. He’s fine now.
Maple Leafs vs Lightning Betting Analysis
Jake Gardiner (1G, 2A), William Nylander (2G, 1 A), Marner (1G, 2A) and Auston Matthews (3A) lead the Leafs with three points each against the Lightning this season; Matthews missed the last game. Andersen was in net for all three and is 1-1-1 with a 2.63 goals-against average and .929 save percentage.
Alex Killorn (2G, 1A) and rookie Yanni Gourde (1G, 2A) lead the Bolts with three points vs. Toronto. Vasilevskiy, a Vezina Trophy candidate, is 2-1-0 with a 2.29 GAA and .915 save percentage against the Leafs.
Toronto is 2-6 in its past eight in Tampa. The total has gone under in four of the previous five there.
Toronto Maple Leafs
Fours are wild for the Leafs (43-22-7), who followed a four-game winning streak in mid-to-late February with four consecutive losses and have since won four in a row again. Toronto beat visiting Montreal 4-0 on Saturday, the team’s first shutout victory since Feb. 20 vs. Florida. It was also the Leafs’ club-record 12th straight victory at Air Canada Centre. Curtis McElhinney made 33 saves for his third shutout of the season. He was in net with Andersen unavailable after taking a blow to the head/neck last Wednesday against Dallas. Matthews missed his ninth game in a row with a shoulder injury, defenceman Nikita Zaitsev a fourth consecutive with an illness, and Leo Komarov sat with a lower-body injury. Andreas Johnsson, William Nylander, Kasperi Kapanen and Nazem Kadri had the goals; it was Johnsson’s first in his second NHL game.
Tampa Bay Lightning
The Lightning (49-19-4) had led the NHL in points for much of the season but have since fallen behind the Nashville Predators in the chase for the Presidents’ Trophy – a Tampa Bay-Nashville Stanley Cup Finals is currently the betting favoured matchup at Sports Interaction. The Lightning ended a two-game losing streak Sunday with a 3-1 win over the visiting Oilers. Kucherov had two goals and is up to 93 points; it was his fourth multi-goal game of the season. Steven Stamkos had two assists. Backup goalie Louis Domingue stopped 29 of 30 shots, but it should be Vasilevskiy back in there Tuesday.
