In Game one of the best of seven series; the Toronto Maple Leafs are on the road at the Boston Bruins Saturday. The Toronto Maple Leafs finished third in the Atlantic Division with a 46-26-10 record on the season. The Maple Leafs lost their final four games of the regular season, including a 6-4 defeat on Wednesday to Tampa Bay.
The Boston Bruins are coming off a home loss to Ottawa on Tuesday. Boston finished losing their last two games of the season. The Bruins finished a single point behind Florida in the divisional standings, with their 47-20-15 record.
The last time these two teams played on March 7th, the Boston Bruins won the game 4-1 over Toronto. The Boston Bruins are -130 in this game at home over the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Matthews and the Maple Leafs
Auston Matthews finished the regular season nicely with 69 goals on the season. He also added 38 assists on the season. William Nylander came through with a monster regular season as well with 58 assists and 40 goals. Mitch Marner was next for Toronto with 59 assists and 26 goals.
The Maple Leafs as a team are scoring 3.63 goals per game. That is the second best in all of the league. Toronto was 7th in shots on goal with 32.6 per game, and 7th on the power play, at nearly 24%. The Maple Leafs on the defensive side, allowed nearly 3.2 goals per game.
In between the pipes for Toronto will be Ilya Samsonov. He went 23-7-8 during the regular season. He allowed 3.13 goals per game. Samsonov did record three shut-outs on the season. His last start was on April 13th, where he lost in overtime to Detroit.
Pastrnak and the Bruins
If the Toronto Maple Leafs have a guy to lead their offense, so do the Boston Bruins. David Pastrnak has been outstanding all season. He finished with 47 goals and 63 assists on the season. His 110 points were 43 more than the second most on the team. Pastrnak and Brad Marchand both played in every game this season.
Boston is 14th in the league in scoring. The Bruins are scoring 3.21 goals per game. Offensively, they are solid with their shooting percentage of 11%. Defensively, the Bruins want to win games. Boston is allowing just 2.7 goals per game. That is 6th in the National Hockey League.
The Bruins will send Linus Ullmark to the net in this game. He went 22-10-7 on the season, and allowed 2.58 goals per game. In his final start of the regular season, he allowed two goals to the Senators in the loss.
Maple Leafs Stun Bruins
We like the Toronto Maple Leafs to grab this win. Neither team is playing great hockey as the postseason gets here. But, with the Bruins defense on their toes, Toronto uses their offense to win this game. It will be a long series, but with the Maple Leafs winning Game 1, the Bruins will likely wake up.
Our final bet for this game is the Toronto Maple Leafs +110 over the Boston Bruins. Enjoy the game and best of luck!
