Maple Leafs vs Penguins NHL Line & Handicapping
Maple Leafs and Penguins in Rubber Match of their Season Series Monday Night
The Toronto Maple Leafs will try to build some kind of momentum when they travel to Pittsburgh Monday night to take on a banged up Penguins team.
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Toronto (17-14-1-2) at Pittsburgh (23-10-1-0)
When: 7:00 PM ET, Monday, December 16, 2013
Where: Consol Energy Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Broadcast: RDS, NHLN-US, SNET-O, ROOT
Leafs vs. Penguins Betting Lines
Toronto Maple Leafs +1½ -190 +167 Ov 5½ +118
Pittsburgh Penguins -1½ +165 -184 Un 5½ -130
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The Leafs are coming off an impressive 7-3 beat down of the defending champs on Saturday night but the Penguins enter Monday night’s game on a three game win streak.
The availability of Evgeni Malkin is in question for the game – one of many that will likely be out of the lineup for Pittsburgh – four of their top five D-men including Kris Letang (lower-body injury), Paul Martin (broken leg), Rob Scuderi (broken ankle) and Brooks Orpik (head injury) and forwards Tanner Glass (broken hand), Andrew Ebbett (broken ankle) and Beau Bennett (broken wrist) are all out.
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Forward James Neal is currently serving a suspension for an illegal hit to the head of Bruins forward Brad Marchand – wow. To say that the Leafs have maybe caught the Pens at the right time may be an understatement.
The Leafs continue their brutal schedule against Pittsburgh after playing Chicago and Los Angeles in their prior two games. The Leafs were mired in a 3-7-2 stretch – zero wins in regulation over that span! But a 7-3 win Saturday broke a lot of slumps – a good sign for this team.
Mason Raymond had four assists Saturday and has five points in two games, Joffrey Lupul has four points in two games, Phil Kessel has seven points in six games and Nikolai Kulemin has four points in his past four games. The Leafs bring a decent offense to town – 2.74 goals per game – too bad about David Clarkson’s two goals and four assists in 23 games – not bad for $5.5 million per year.
Neither Leafs keeper is playing particularly well. Jonathan Bernier despite the win Saturday is 1-2-0 with a 2.98 GAA and .887 save percentage in his last three starts. James Reimer has a 4.29 GAA in his last five games played.
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The Penguins have been decimated by injuries all season long and now they have the Evgeni Malkin dealing with injury. The league leader in assists will certainly be missed along with the other sidelined starters. The good news – Sidney Crosby who has scored five goals and added five assists during his current six-game point streak and . Crosby has 19 goals and 23 assists in 27 career games versus the Maple Leafs.
Marc-Andre Fleury should get the start Monday – he is 2-0-0 with a 1.00 GAA and .971 save percentage in his last two starts. He has played well all season long and looks as solid as they come right now.
Dave’s FREE NHL Betting Prediction
A few trends to consider:
• TOR are 1-8 in their last 9 road games.
• Over is 8-2-1 in TOR last 11 overall.
• TOR are 3-8 in their last 11 overall.
• PIT are 56-17 in their last 73 home games.
• PIT are 54-22 in their last 76 overall.
• Over is 8-1 in the last 9 meetings in Pittsburgh.
• Over is 20-7-1 in the last 28 meetings.
Toronto has won just one of its last five trips to Pittsburgh but the Pens are a team that will be missing half their team! I have no idea how the Pens keep getting it done.
If either Toronto goaltender was playing decently I may take the Leafs in this one but I can’t see the Pens scoring less than four goals in this one – is Fleury gonna give up 4?
Pick: Pittsburgh Penguins -184
