Morning Coffee: Would You Bet On The Maple Leafs To Win Game 2?

The Toronto Maple Leafs and their fans spent an entire year preparing for Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

All things considered I’m not sure Tuesday night’s result could have been any worse.

The Tampa Bay Lightning set a franchise record with their most goals in a playoff opener in a 7-3 win.

It was the first time in three decades that the Maple Leafs allowed 7+ goals in a home playoff game.

The Game 1 performance was a hot topic in the office on Wednesday.

While there was some optimism that Toronto would bounce back in Game 2, that sentiment led to the question that I posed to several of my co-workers throughout the day.

Would you bet on the Maple Leafs to win Game 2?

Everybody understands that Toronto can’t afford to go down 0-2 before the series shifts to Tampa.

It’s one thing to acknowledge it’s a must-win game.

It’s another to place a wager on the Maple Leafs to win.

This is the Morning Coffee for Thursday April 20^th, 2023.

Would You Bet On The Maple Leafs To Win Game 2?

As someone who bet on Toronto to win a playoff game for the first time on Tuesday night, I’m not sure that I could have felt any worse after watching the Lightning jump out to an early 3-0 lead.

Tampa Bay looked to be in complete control of the game throughout the first period.

I couldn’t have been more disappointed with the result.

That said, the Maple Leafs did respond in the second period and cut the deficit to one goal before a couple of key mistakes and questionable decisions led the Lightning pulling away for good.

It was just the third game in NHL history to feature six straight power play goals.

If it wasn’t for the penalties late in the second period, Toronto money line would have been live heading into the third period.

Instead, Tampa Bay clinched its third straight playoff win over Toronto dating back to Game 6 of last year’s first round series.

Now we look to turn the page to Game 2 tonight.

It’s one thing to tell me that they should bounce back.

It’s another to place a wager on Toronto to win at FanDuel after what we witnessed on Tuesday night.

If the Maple Leafs don’t win Game 2, it would be far more likely than not that they don’t get out of the first round.

The Lightning have won all 10 of their playoff series with a 2-0 lead.

They are one of four NHL franchises that has never blown a 2-0 series lead.

Meanwhile, Toronto is 4-17 all-time when trailing 2-0 in a best-of-seven series.

Last night in the NHL, three of the four teams that had lost their Game 1 bounced back with a win in Game 2.

The New York Islanders were the lone exception, as they lost to the Carolina Hurricanes in overtime.

Prior to Tuesday night, I don’t know anyone who would have predicted that the Maple Leafs would be swept by Tampa Bay.

If they were to win one game in the series, I’d expect it to be tonight on home ice.

Toronto has moved from -162 to -172 to win Game 2 tonight at FanDuel.

All of this leads to the one question that I have for Maple Leafs’ fans this morning…

Would you bet on the Maple Leafs to win tonight?

Let me know @DomPadulaEDGE on Twitter.

A FanDuel Best Bet For Thursday’s NHL Slate

After completely whiffing on Toronto money line on Tuesday night, it was all business for me when it came to betting on the Stanley Cup Playoffs last night.

In Wednesday’s Morning Coffee column, I gave out Adrian Kempe 3+ shots on goal and the Edmonton Oilers on the money line as my FanDuel Best Bets.

A few hours later, I doubled down with Kempe 4+ shots on goal at +114 at FanDuel.

In addition to that sweep, I jumped on the Dallas Stars to beat the Minnesota Wild on the money line the moment that it was confirmed that Marc-Andre Fleury would start.

That’s not a knock on Fleury by any means.

Filip Gustavsson stole Game 1 for Minnesota with 51 saves in a 3-2 double-overtime win.

We all knew that the Stars would be desperate to avoid an 0-2 hole, so I didn’t agree with the move from Gustavsson to Fleury.

As far as a FanDuel Best Bet for tonight’s slate, I’ll go with another home favourite looking to avoid an 0-2 hole on home ice.

The Colorado Avalanche entered the playoffs as the obvious favourite to win the Western Conference.

Colorado was a -280 series favourite against the Seattle Kraken at FanDuel.

After dropping the opener 3-1 as a -200 money line favourite, the Avalanche are currently -210 to bounce back with a win in Game 2.

I think we see an appropriate response from the defending Stanley Cup champions on home ice tonight.

I’ll take Colorado to win in regulation at -140 as my FanDuel Best Bet.

Meanwhile, from a player prop perspective, I think we see a response from Nathan MacKinnon after he was held without a point in Game 1.

It wasn’t for a lack of effort.

MacKinnon recorded seven shots on goal on 11 shot attempts in the series opener.

A year ago, MacKinnon registered 6+ shots on goal in all four games in the first round.

I think he will be buzzing again tonight for a desperate team against an opponent that gave up 35 shots on goal in Game 1.

I’ll take MacKinnon over 4.5 shots on goal at -130.

Outright Winners Still Perfect ATS In The NBA Playoffs

In case you are new to this column, the greatest NBA playoff betting trend you might not have heard of continued on Wednesday night.

All three outright winners covered the spread.

The Denver Nuggets beat the Minnesota Timberwolves 122-113 as an 8.5-point favourite at FanDuel.

The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Miami Heat 138-122 as a 5.5-point favourite.

The Memphis Grizzlies closed as a 2.5-point underdog without Ja Morant and beat the Los Angeles Lakers 103-93.

The outright winner has covered the spread in all 15 games so far in this year’s NBA playoffs.

The outright winner has covered in 43 straight games dating back to last year’s postseason.

Will that trend continue tonight in the association?

After watching them fall behind 0-2 on the road in their first round series, I bet the Golden State Warriors -5 for Game 3 tonight against the Sacramento Kings.

The Kings have shown us they are the real deal, but Golden State has been awful on the road all season, and I fully expect them to bounce back in front of their home crowd.

While the loss of Draymond Green hurts, it also created an opportunity to get a better number with the Warriors after the spread dropped from Golden State -7.5 to -5.

Sacramento was excellent on the road all year.

However, this is a desperate Warriors’ team, and I think we see a response from the defending NBA champions tonight in front of their home fans.

I’ll take the Warriors -5 as my best bet in the NBA.