Without the usual convergence of media and fans in Tampa Bay this year, the final countdown to the Super Bowl seems a little bit subdued.

Fortunately, the NBA and NHL have provided us with plenty to talk about, in addition to covering every angle of Super Bowl LV.

On Tuesday night, Al’s Brother, Eric Cohen, Derek Taylor and I joined Aaron Korolnek for the inaugural TSN Edge Super Bowl Spectacular in which we hit on almost every prop we could find in addition to picking our Super Bowl winners.

Shortly after the show wrapped, Toronto Raptors guard Fred VanVleet delivered a historic performance that everybody is still talking about this morning.

Here is the Morning Coffee for Wednesday Feb. 3, 2021.

 

Historic Night For FVV

VanVleet already has the NBA record for the biggest contract ever signed by an undrafted free agent after he inked a four-year, $85 million deal in the off-season.

The 26-year-old guard defied the odds again with a record-setting performance on Tuesday night.

VanVleet powered Toronto (-6.5) to a 123-108 win over the Orlando Magic with 54 points – the most points ever by an undrafted player, passing Moses Malone (53).

VanVleet also set the Raptors single-game franchise record, passing DeMar DeRozan’s mark of 52 set in 2018.

According to Elias, VanVleet is the only undrafted player to hold a franchise’s single-game scoring record.

VanVleet hit 11 three-point shots on 78.6 per cent shooting from beyond the arc in order to reach the record point total.

Each of those 11 three-point attempts came from 25 feet or further, which tied Steph Curry’s NBA record for the most such threes in a game in NBA history.

What will VanVleet have in store for an encore?

After winning and covering in back-to-back games against the Magic, the Raptors will face a much tougher test when they visit the Brooklyn Nets on Friday night.

You can catch that game right across the TSN Network.

 

NHL North Division Update

NHL betting favourites went 6-2 on Tuesday night with the Winnipeg Jets (+105) pulling off one of the upsets in a 3-2 win over the Calgary Flames.

Trevor Lewis, Derek Forbort and Nikolaj Ehlers all found the back of the net for the Jets, as Winnipeg snapped a mini two-game slide with the victory.

Meanwhile, Tyler Toffoli scored twice and added an assist as the Montreal Canadiens (-165) beat the Vancouver Canucks 5-3 to improve to 4-0-1 in their head-to-head meetings this season.

Toffoli leads the National Hockey League with nine goals in 10 games this season. Eight of those goals have come in five games against his former team in the Canucks.

Josh Anderson also scored twice for the Habs, who are now back on top of the North Division standings at 7-1-2.

Meanwhile, the Edmonton Oilers (-230) completed their two-game sweep of the Ottawa Senators with a 4-2 win.

After combining for 13 goals in Edmonton’s 8-5 win on Sunday night, this was a much lower scoring affair that just beat the buzzer to stay under the total of 6.5 goals.

Leon Draisaitl scored his seventh of the season. Connor McDavid finished with two assists.

Any fantasy hockey league managers playing an opponent that had one of the Oilers’ two superstars had to breathe a sigh of relief that it wasn’t any worse after those two combined for 11 points in Sunday’s win.