Bruins vs Maple Leafs NHL Spread/Handicapping
The Toronto Maple Leafs have two games under their belts – playoff jitters are not an excuse anymore and if they improve in Game 3 like they for Game 2, Leafs fans could go home very, very happy Monday night.
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Boston Bruins (29-15-3-3) at Toronto Maple Leafs
When: 7:00 PM ET, Monday, May 6, 2013
Where: Air Canada Centre, Toronto, Ontario
Broadcast: CBC, RDS, NHLN-US, NESN
Series tied 1-1
Bruins vs. Leafs Betting Lines from Bovada
Boston Bruins -1½ +230 -126 Ov 5 -131
Toronto Maple Leafs +1½ -275 +114 Un 5 +119
Playoffs Return To Toronto For First Time Since ‘04
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The Boston Bruins will be looking to rebound after getting outcoached, outhit, out-energized and ultimately outplayed in their own building Saturday night. Game 3 goes Monday night – it has all the makings of a classic
The Boston Bruins had no answer for the energy and the confidence of the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night – now they have to hope to win at least one game in Toronto to get to the second round of the playoffs. The Bruins have been just average over the last few weeks – 3-6-2 in their last 11 games overall and will need to step up to get past a young, hungry team that has little to lose.
The Bruins have been getting good offensive performances from David Krejci, Milan Lucic and Nathan Horton who have combined for four of the team’s six goals. Krejci leads all players in the series with four points, Horton has two goals and Lucic has three assists. The Bruins will need some contributions from some other sources however – Jaromir Jagr is minus-2 with no points to open the postseason and Tyler Seguin has also been held pointless in the series as well.
Boston also fell victim to one of Tuukka Rask’s worst performances in quite some time – five goals on 29 shots. It is hard to imaging Rask delivering another Dud Monday although Saturday night’s five goals against was more of a reflection of Toronto’s great play rather than of Rask’s poor play.[ad-4437448]
Leafs Coach Randy Carlisle pushed all the right buttons on Saturday night – Ryan Hamilton, Matt Frattin, Jake Gardiner and Ryan O’Byrne dressed in place of Frazer McLaren, Clarke MacArthur and John-Michael Liles. Hamilton, Frattin and Gardiner each contributed an assist, while O’Byrne finished plus-1 with four hits and two blocked shots in 14:49 of ice time. Carlyle shuffled his lines in order to free Phil Kessel from the smothering defense of Bruins captain Zdeno Chara and Kessel recorded his first point in five games this season versus the Bruins – the game-winning goal on a breakaway for his first even-strength goal in 24 contests against his old team.
Although the offense and the line shuffling stole a lot of the headlines after Saturday’s win, James Reimer’s performance could not be overstated. He made 39 saves in Saturday night’s game and has now stopped 75 of 81 shots directed his way in the two games so far. He has outplayed Rask and has given the Leafs a heap of confidence heading into Game 3.
Betting Prediction
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A few trends to consider:
• BOS are 22-5 in their last 27 Mon. games.
• Under is 8-3-2 in BOS last 13 road games.
• BOS are 3-8 in their last 11 overall.
• Over is 10-4-3 in TOR last 17 games following a win.
• Over is 10-4-2 in TOR last 16 home games.
• TOR are 7-3 in their last 10 home games.
• Over is 10-3-2 in the last 15 meetings.
• BOS are 21-8 in the last 29 meetings.
The crowd at Air Canada Center promises to be insane on Monday night. Although it promises to inject some energy into the home squad it may also act to intensify the pressure on this still largely inexperienced playoff team. However I, like most, love what we saw from the Leafs on Saturday night however – they gained a ton of confidence, Phil Kessel snapped his season long slump against the Bruins and the Leafs finally found a way to keep Zdeno Chara off of their top player. Toronto rides the wave of momentum and the energy of their rabid home-town crown Monday.
Pick: Toronto Maple Leafs +114
