NHL Hockey Betting: Detroit Red Wings at Toronto Maple Leafs
The Detroit Red Wings and Toronto Maple Leafs are in 7th and 6th place in the Atlantic Division standings respectively but going in drastically different directions. They’ll renew their ‘original six’ rivalry on Sunday as they play outdoors at BMO Field in Toronto. The Maple Leafs are playing very well at the moment and starting to get a glimpse of what the addition of Auston Matthews will mean to their team. The Leafs have won 4 straight and are 6-2-2 in their last ten games. They’re just 1 point behind fifth place Florida, three points behind fourth place Tampa Bay and 5 points back of the second and third place teams, the Ottawa Senators and Boston Bruins. They have a tough stretch of games coming up with road games at Washington and New Jersey followed by a home data against the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday night.
Detroit has won 3 of their last five games but have lost 6 of 9. They scrapped out a victory against the Senators at Ottawa last time out and will try and draw closer to the Leafs with a win here. Toronto leads Detroit by 3 points while the Wings are just two points up on the Atlantic’s last place team, the Buffalo Sabres. Overall, Detroit is 4-5-1 in their last ten games but have actually played better on the road (9-6-1) than at home (7-10-3). One major issue that the Wings are having this season is scoring–they’re the #26 scoring offense in the NHL averaging just 2.33 goals per game. Toronto, on the other hand, is #6 with 2.91 goals per game just behind #5 Montreal and just in front of #7 Philadelphia. Toronto’s team defense is middle of the pack (tied for #15 with Nashville at 2.69 goals against per game) while Detroit is an uncharacteristic #21 allowing 2.83 goals per game. Adding to the Wings’ problem–they’ve got the worst power play in the NHL scoring on just 12% of their man advantage opportunities.
Detroit has a whole laundry list of injuries including goaltender Jimmie Howard who will be out at least a month. That will put Petr Mrazek
in net today and he’s not been good at all this season. In theory, we’d like to play the road team in outdoor games but just can’t pull the trigger on this banged up Red Wings team.
BET TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS -170 OVER DETROIT RED WINGS
