The Toronto Maple Leafs have started to show some signs of life.
After a terrible first quarter of the season left them in the basement of the Eastern Conference, the Leafs began to find their footing after Thanksgiving, putting them within shouting distance of a wild-card spot.
The only issue is that Toronto’s recent uptick in form doesn’t seem sustainable.
The Maple Leafs have continued to get caved in defensively at 5-on-5, and are implementing a bend-but-don’t-break strategy, relying on Joseph Woll (or Dennis Hildeby) to bail them out of trouble in the defensive zone.
To his credit, Woll has been splendid since re-joining the team after a leave of absence, but it’s unlikely that he’s going to keep up this pace for an extended period of time, especially since he’s facing a pretty heavy workload.
Betting on the NHL?
Toronto’s scoring power also remains a problem, as Auston Matthews is still looking out of sorts, putting a ton of pressure on William Nylander, Matthew Knies and John Tavares to shoulder the production load until the team’s captain finds his groove.
The Montreal Canadiens have their own issues to sort out, especially in their end, but they should have a couple of clear edges in this contest.
The Canadiens, even with their current injury woes, are the deeper team up front, and they’ve got boatloads of speed and skill in their lineup, something that has given the Leafs plenty of issues all season.
As long as the Habs are able to clean things up on defense, they should be able to tilt the ice in this one and get the win.
THE PLAY: Montreal Canadiens (+110, FanDuel)
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Michael Leboff is a long-suffering Islanders fan, but a long-profiting sports bettor with 10 years of experience in the gambling industry. He loves using game theory to help punters win bracket pools, find long shots, and learn how to beat the market in mainstream and niche sports.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
