Matchup of the night on Friday in the NHL is an Original Six game between bitter rivals as the Boston Bruins make their last visit of the regular season to the Toronto Maple Leafs, who are slightly favored on the Mybookie NHL odds with the Bruins on a four-game losing streak – although Toronto is struggling too.
How to Bet Bruins vs Maple Leafs NHL Odds & Game Info
- When: Friday, 7 PM ET
- Where: Scotiabank Arena
- TV: NHL Center Ice, TVA
- Stream: NHL.tv
- Radio: SiriusXM
- NHL Odds: Toronto Maple Leafs -115 (Total 6)
Last Meeting
These teams played a home-and home earlier this year and split – Leafs captain John Tavares missed both but is back now. The first meeting was in Toronto and the Bruins lost 4-3 in overtime on Oct. 19. Mitch Marner’s hard shot after taking a pass from Auston Matthews glanced in off teammate Morgan Rielly at 3:54 of overtime; Reilly was credited with the goal. Frederik Andersen stopped 42 shots.In Boston, the Bruins won 4-2. David Pastrnak had a goal and assist to reach 300 career points. Tuukka Rask made 28 saves in his 500th career game. Kasperi Kapanen and Alexander Kerfoot had a goal and assist apiece for the Maple Leafs. The Maple Leafs tied after falling behind 1-0 and 2-1, but couldn’t get anything past Rask in the third period. Michael Hutchinson stopped 35 shots.
Why Bet on Boston?
The Bruins were 11-1-2 at one point but lost a fourth straight game Tuesday, 5-4 in a shootout at home to Florida. Boston struggled to stay out of the penalty kill late, which ended up being one of the many factors that allowed the Panthers to get back within striking distance. The last time the Bruins blew a lead of four-plus goals and lost a regular-season contest was Dec. 30, 1989, when they surrendered a five-goal advantage in a 7-6 loss to Toronto.David Pastrnak got his league-leading 16th goal of the season. Pastrnak opened the scoring at the 11:55 mark of the second period and ended a brief skid of two games without a point in the process. He finished the match with eight shots on goal. Pastrnak has 31 points through 18 contests.
Making the Difference
David Krejci posted two assists. Krejci finished with a plus-2 rating, three shots on goal and a hit while winning seven of his 12 faceoff chances (58.3 percent). He has managed three multi-point performances in the past five outings, going for aa goal and six points with a plus-5 rating. Since returning from his two-week absence due to an upper-body injury he has two goals and eight points in seven outings.Zdeno Chara scored his third goal of the year. He gave the Bruins a 4-0 lead at the 19:31 mark of the second period. However, the Panthers rallied with a four-goal third period before winning the match in a shootout. Tuukka Rask allowed four goals on 29 shots and allowed two goals in four rounds of the shootout to suffer the disappointing loss.
Rookie Zach Senyshyn left the game early in the second period and did not return because of a what was termed as a lower-body injury by the Bruins. The 22-year-old has two assists in four games since being called up from Providence.
Team Stats
Offense- Goals: 3.56
- Shots: 32.39
- PP/PK Percentage: 30.51
Defense
- Goals: 2.67
- Shots: 31.17
- PP/PK Percentage: 17.54
Why Bet on Toronto?
The Leafs lost their third in a row Wednesday, 5-4 at the streaking New York Islanders. Semyon Varlamov made 23 saves and the Islanders earned a point for the 13th straight game — a span including 12 victories and one overtime loss.“The bottom line is we’re through 20 games now, and when you evaluate what we’ve done in 20 games, we don’t like it as a group,” Toronto coach Mike Babcock said. “We think we can be better, and we’ll identify the areas again as we go through it and grind our way out of this.
Former Islander John Tavares picked up a goal and an assist in the loss. Tavares took the opening face-off in his former team’s home rink and he was booed right away. Tavares registered the primary helper on Kasperi Kapanen’s goal in the second frame and he added one of his own in the dying seconds of the game to cut the deficit to 5-4. He finished the night with a plus-1 rating and two shots on goal in 17:44 of ice time. The 29-year-old has four points in his last two games and six goals and 13 points in 13 games overall.
Big Names
William Nylander scored his eighth goal of the season on Wednesday night, surpassing the goal total he had last year. Nylander had seven goals and 27 points in 54 games last season after ending his contract holdout in December.Zach Hyman logged 17:37 of ice time in his season debut on Wednesday. Hyman missed the 19 games of the 2019-20 campaign coming off a torn ACL he suffered in the playoffs. Hyman skated alongside Tavares and Kasperi Kapanen at even strength. He also saw some time on the penalty kill and the power play. Hyman reached personal bests in 2018-19 with 21 goals and 41 points in 71 games.
Frederik Andersen allowed five goals on 29 shots. Andersen owns a 9-3-3 record with a 2.72 goals-against-average and a .912 save percentage this season.
Team Stats
Offense- Goals: 3.40
- Shots: 33.30
- PP/PK Percentage: 17.65
Defense
- Goals: 3.35
- Shots: 32.90
- PP/PK Percentage: 24.32
Bruins vs Maple Leafs NHL Betting Trends
- Home team is 15-7 in the last 22 meetings
- Bruins are 2-4 SU in their last 6 games this season
- The total has gone OVER in 5 of Boston’s last 6 games on the road
- Maple Leafs are 1-6 SU in their last 7 games against an opponent in the East conference
- The total has gone OVER in 8 of Toronto’s last 9 games against an opponent in the Atlantic division
