Face-off: 1900, 11/12/2021
Venue: Scotiabank Arena
Toronto can’t afford to slip up against teams like Chicago if they are to challenge for top honours in a powerful Atlantic Division.
The Blackhawks have been playing with plenty of spirit during a decent run of results but this represents a significant step up in class.
We think 2.05 for a home win by more than 1.5 goals is a fair price in our Toronto Maple Leafs vs Chicago Blackhawks predictions.
Toronto Maple Leafs Odds
Toronto paid the price for some lapses in concentration at the back in Thursday’s 5-3 loss to Tampa Bay, who made it five wins in a row.
Head coach Sheldon Keefe said: “You can’t make those kind of plays, those 5-on-5 goals we gave up. Those were inexcusable, those were gifts.
“That’s precisely what we talked about before the game started. You give that team and that goaltender that kind of support, it’s going to be tough to climb out of.
“I didn’t think we played a terrible game by any means. We worked hard and had our chances but you just can’t give that kind of stuff up.”
The Maple Leafs still had some good moments going forward, though, with Ondrej Kase scoring twice and Auston Matthews extending his point streak to eight games via an assist.
Toronto have won six out of their last nine matches and one of the other defeats was an overtime loss at red-hot Minnesota.
In a game we expect them to dominate, 2.25 for Matthews to have over 1.5 points appeals from the NHL odds.
Chicago Blackhawks Odds
Chicago can boast a creditable five victories from nine outings after Marc-Andre Fleury enjoyed a memorable night in a 2-0 success at Montreal.
The Quebec-born 37-year-old became only the third goalie to claim 500 NHL wins and was even cheered on by the home supporters at Bell Centre late on.
“It meant a lot for me to have so many people from Quebec maybe being proud of me for being from here and achieving this goal,” Fleury said.
Jonathan Toews scored his first goal for 21 months and Henrik Borgstrom also netted while Seth Jones now has 20 points this term after registering an assist.
However, although the Blackhawks have done well to shade some tight tussles with fellow strugglers, they do tend to falter against elite-level opponents.
They had previously been thumped 6-2 by the New York Rangers and recently went down 5-2 at Calgary.
Toronto represents another formidable foe and 4.6 for them to oblige by three goals is added to our NHL predictions.
Additional stats
Last result:
TORONTO 3-5 Tampa Bay
Montreal 0-2 CHICAGO
Head-to-head: Chicago 2-3 Toronto, Toronto 2-6 Chicago, Chicago 5-4 Toronto, Toronto 4-5 Chicago
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