The Toronto Maple Leafs played in front of a capacity crowd at home for the first time since early December on Wednesday night.

It’s safe to say that fans in attendance expected to see a much different performance than the one they got.

The Buffalo Sabres beat Toronto 5-1 as a +330 underdog.

While I’d never recommend betting on an NHL favourite at -430 odds, seeing the Maple Leafs at that number has suddenly turned into an opportunity to fade them.

Toronto has been a favourite of -320 or longer four times since Jan. 12. They’ve lost three of those four games.

Last night’s win by Buffalo was the biggest upset in regulation this NHL season.

Here’s the TSN EDGE Morning Coffee for Thursday March 3, 2022.

Sabres stun Maple Leafs

The Maple Leafs had scored three or more goals in four straight games heading into Wednesday night, including a season-high 10 goals in a win over the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday.

But they hit a wall against the Sabres on Wednesday night. Craig Anderson turned aside 29 of the 30 shots he faced to pull off the upset and hold Toronto under its team total.

Meanwhile, the Sabres to go over 2.5 goals cashed at +135. The win snapped a six-game losing streak for Buffalo.

By the time it was over, the capacity crowd booed the home team off the ice.

Sheldon Keefe said after the game that his team was “terrible from start to finish” and that “we just didn’t have it,” but in the current climate, it wasn’t a surprise that so many fans were pointing to the goaltending after the game.

Toronto has allowed three or more goals in three straight and six of its past seven games overall – a 6-1 run to the over for its opponents’ team totals. 

Will that trend continue against the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday night?

It will be very interesting to see which goaltender the Maple Leafs turn to and how they respond on home ice.

NHL underdogs went 2-1 on Wednesday with the Seattle Kraken pulling off the other upset in a 5-3 win over the Nashville Predators as a +160 underdog.

The New York Rangers closing as a pick’em in a 5-3 win over the St. Louis Blues.

76ers rally in Harden’s home debut

James Harden scored 26 points with nine rebounds and nine assists as the Philadelphia 76ers rallied from down 16 points to beat the New York Knicks 123-108 on Wednesday night.

If you’ve bet the over on Harden’s point and rebounds prop in each of his three games for the 76ers, you went 6-0.

If also bet the over on his assists prop in all three games, you went 8-1 as he fell just short of the 10.5 last night.

After trailing by as many as 16, Philadelphia still rallied to cover as a 10.5-point favourite.

Meanwhile, Joel Embiid went for a game-high 27 points with 12 rebounds in the double-digit victory.

As of this morning, Embiid is now -125 to win NBA regular-season MVP – the shortest odds we have seen for any player to win that award this season.

The 76ers will look to improve to 4-0 in the Harden era against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday night.

NBA favourites went 6-2 straight up on Wednesday night and are now 18-3 SU over the past three nights.

Arnold Palmer Invitational underway

The PGA Tour continues its Florida swing this week with the Arnold Palmer Invitational in Orlando.

Defending champion Bryson DeChambeau won’t compete due to a lingering injury, which means a new champion will be crowned at Bay Hill on Sunday.

Jon Rahm entered the tournament as the betting favourite at +800.

Rory McIlroy (+1200), Viktor Hovland (+1400), Scottie Scheffler (+2000) and Hideki Matsuyama rounded out the top five choices to win it.

In case you missed it, the Golf Talk Canada guys gave us their best bets to win the Arnold Palmer Invitational.