(Photo credit: Bridget Samuels / Foter / CC BY)
Most of the times the boxscore can tell the story about a game for the Toronto Maple Leafs, but that wasn’t the case Saturday against the Montreal Canadiens.
The obvious bet on Leafs games would seem to be to take their opponents, especially when they are on the road, but Toronto really isn’t that bad of a defensive team. Against a faster opponent, Montreal, the Leafs were often caught flat footed, but still actually outplayed and outshot the Habs. The deciding factor of the game was Carey Price and he is something you never really want to bet against.
Another note so far this season about the Leafs would be their inability to score in the first period. If there are any props to choose who wins the first period, it’s wise to bet against the Leafs. They seem to get off to slow starts again, a trend that continues from last season. At the worst, they usually go into the intermission tied which would lead to a push for bettors.
Going into Monday’s game against Arizona, Toronto had scored just two first-period goals this year while allowing seven.
The Leafs’ scoring struggles could also be shown in Price’s goalie statistics; he had only surrendered one goal in Montreal so far this season. The Leafs tagged the league’s best goalie for 3 this past weekend, but needed more than 50 shots to do it.
– Article by Patrick O’Neill (@PONeill472)