San Jose Sharks vs. Toronto Maple Leafs: NHL Odds, Prediction
The San Jose Sharks have had mixed success in Canada this season as they make their only visit of the year to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday night. The Leafs are looking to stop a three-game slide.
Sharks vs. Maple Leafs Betting Analysis
This is the last meeting between San Jose and Toronto. On Oct. 30 in northern California, the Sharks were -120 favourites with a total of 6 and beat the Leafs 3-2. Tim Heed gave San Jose the lead on a power-play goal at 4:11 of the third and Joel Ward scored the clincher at 17:47. Auston Matthews had a first-period goal and Andreas Borgman scored just over a minute after Ward did. All-time Sharks great Patrick Marleau was minus-2 in his return to the city. San Jose outshot Toronto 39-18 in winning its 10th straight in the series. Martin Jones made 16 saves for the Sharks to improve to 7-0 in his career against the Leafs with a 1.41 goals-against average and .947 save percentage.
Last year, the Sharks won in Toronto 3-2 in a shootout. The Sharks got goals from Justin Braun and Joe Pavelski in the third period to tie it, and Logan Couture scored the only goal in a shootout. Jones stopped Mitch Marner, Matthews and Nikita Soshnikov in the shootout. San Jose put 42 shots on Frederik Andersen. The under is 5-2 in the past seven meetings overall.
San Jose Sharks
The Sharks (21-12-4) have two victories in four games in Canada this year. The first was Dec. 14 in Calgary. The team then lost in Vancouver and Edmonton, but Tuesday night won in Montreal 4-1 in the second game of a five-game road trip. No. 1 goaltender Jones was pulled from Sunday’s 6-0 wipeout in Dallas so backup Aaron Dell got the call against the Canadiens and had 30 saves. He’s second in the league in goals-against average (1.98) and save percentage (.934). Timo Meier had two goals vs. Montreal and Marc-Edouard Vlasic a goal and an assist. The Sharks only average 2.7 goals per game – no player has more than 27 points — but are Top 5 in goals-against and on the penalty-kill so when they score at least three goals they usually win.
Toronto Maple Leafs
Toronto (23-16-2) had a chance to make a bit of a statement Tuesday when it started a six-game homestand against the NHL’s best team in Tampa Bay, but the Lightning won 2-0 to hand the Leafs their third straight loss. They put 29 shots on Vezina Trophy favourite Andrei Vasilevskiy, who had his sixth shutout of the year. It was the first time Toronto had been blanked since a 2-0 loss in Minnesota on Dec. 14. Andersen had 34 saves in a tough-luck loss. One bright spot was the return of centre Nazem Kadri from a two-game absence due to an upper-body injury. He had four shots on goal and was minus-1 in 17:15 of ice time. Kadri hasn’t found the net since Nov. 30 in Edmonton.
