Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Pittsburgh Penguins Prediction, NHL Odds
The struggling Toronto Maple Leafs play the second of a back-to-back and make their only visit of the season to Pittsburgh on Saturday night. Sidney Crosby and the Penguins are -105 underdogs on the NHL odds with a total of 5.5 goals.
Maple Leafs vs. Penguins NHL Betting Odds
It’s quite a 24-hour stretch for the Maple Leafs as they were in Washington, D.C., on Friday night to see all-time goalscoring king Alex Ovechkin and now tonight are in Pittsburgh to face another legendary future Hall of Famer in Sidney Crosby. Leafs-Penguins is the first game of the Hockey Night in Canada doubleheader, followed by Vancouver at Los Angeles.
Toronto is 2-2 in the second of a back-to-back this season, last playing one at home on Nov. 9 and losing to Carolina. It’s also the second of a B2B for Pittsburgh after visiting Columbus on Friday. The Pens are 0-3 in the second of those this season, most recently losing last Saturday at home to Seattle.
Tonight marks the second of three regular-season meetings between these clubs with Pittsburgh closing the set in Toronto on Dec. 23. On Nov. 3 at Scotiabank Arena, the Maple Leafs beat the Penguins, 4-3, despite trailing 3-0 entering the third. Bobby McMann scored the winner at 13:43 of the third. William Nylander had two goals and an assist in that third. Anthony Stolarz was in net for the Leafs and Tristan Jarry for the Penguins. Neither will be playing tonight most likely. Crosby didn’t score but had a helper.
Toronto is 7-3 in the past 10 meetings overall and the over-under is 5-5.
Toronto Maple Leafs
Second of a back-to-back for the Leafs, whose struggles continued in a 4-2 loss at Washington on Friday night to conclude a three-game trip at 1-2. Toronto was up 2-0 midway through the second period. Morgan Rielly (fourth of season) and Matthew Knies (sixth) had the goals. It was Knies’ 50th career goal in game No. 182. The only Toronto players in the past 35 years to reach the mark in fewer games are Auston Matthews (96 games) and Sergei Berezin (167). Rielly scored his 15th career game-opening goal to pass Ian Turnbull (14) for the fifth-most game-opening goals by a Toronto blueliner. Long way to go to catch record-holder Borje Salming (27). Matthews had an assist in the loss for his 742nd career point to pass Mitch Marner for sole possession of fifth on the franchise’s all-time points list. Oliver Ekman-Larsson had an assist to become the fifth Maple Leafs defenceman to register an eight-game point streak since 1991-92. The last to do it was Cody Franson for nine games in the 2014-15 season.
Because Joseph Woll started in net Friday and Anthony Stolarz is on IR, it should be Dennis Hildeby tonight. The Swedish rookie is 0-2-1 with a 3.37 GAA. Star forward William Nylander sat Friday with an illness and is questionable.
Pittsburgh Penguins
Also the second of a back-to-back for the Penguins, who won a second straight Friday, 4-3 in overtime in Columbus, so a minor break for Toronto in that Pittsburgh also had to travel late Friday. The Blue Jackets led 3-1 in the third period, but Sidney Crosby’s 15th goal of the season tied it at 8:28 of the third and blueliner Kris Letang won it at 0:59 of OT. It was the future Hall of Famer Letang’s 12th career overtime goal, moving him into a tie with Erik Karlsson and Seth Jones for third-most by a defenceman in NHL history. The record is 16 by current Avalanche blueliner Brent Burns, who is still playing at age 40. It was Crosby’s 109th career multi-goal game, tying Jarome Iginla for 20th on the NHL’s all-time list. The only active player above him is all-time goals king Alex Ovechkin (180).
While Friday obviously was away, Crosby has scored 939 home points in his career and can pass the legendary Mario Lemieux for the most home points in Penguins history and for sole possession of the seventh-most home points in NHL history with at least one tonight. As Tristan Jarry started in net Friday, it should be Arturs Silovs tonight. The former Canuck is 4-3-4 with a 2.74 GAA this year.
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