When the Toronto Raptors left town for a three-game road trip that started in North Carolina on Monday night, it looked like they would have a good shot to extend their win streak to a new season-high mark.

Two nights after a 116-101 win over the Charlotte Hornets, the Raptors cruised to a 117-98 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday for a season-high seventh straight win.     

Toronto has covered the spread in all seven games.

As of this morning, the Memphis Grizzlies, Cleveland Cavaliers and Thunder are the only three teams with a better cover percentage than the Raptors.

Meanwhile, Toronto’s futures odds were already on the move throughout the month of January, but that trend has accelerated over the past 14 days.

After stringing together seven straight wins and seven straight covers, we’ve seen significant adjustments across the board.

Here’s the TSN EDGE Morning Coffee for Thursday Feb. 10, 2022.

Raptors’ futures on the move

Pascal Siakam led the way once again on Wednesday night with 27 points, 16 rebounds and five assists.

He’s averaged 25.0 points, 12.6 rebounds and 5.6 assists in his first five games in the month of February.

After three consecutive double-digit wins, the Raptors will head to Texas to face the Houston Rockets tonight on TSN in the final game of their trip.

As of this morning, Toronto is a 7.5-point favourite for that contest.

Meanwhile, from a futures perspective we continue to see their numbers move.

The Raptors opened the regular season at +4200 to win the Atlantic Division. That number was down to +1000 a week ago. As of this morning, Toronto is +600 to finish in first place in the Atlantic.

Meanwhile, the Raptors could be found at 120-to-1 to win the Eastern Conference on Dec. 25.

Fast-forward less than two months later, and Toronto is now 49-to-1 to win the East.

The Raptors are still looking up at the Miami Heat, Milwaukee Bucks, Chicago Bulls, Cleveland Cavaliers and Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Conference standings.

However, they are now only four games of Miami for first place in the East, and 1.5 games back of Philadelphia for top spot in the Atlantic.

I’m not suggesting that the Raptors are the team to beat in their division or their conference by any means.

However, all you need to do is look at how oddsmakers have adjusted their futures to understand how Toronto has gone from an afterthought to a legitimate team to watch in the Eastern Conference over a two-month span.

Meanwhile, NBA favourites went 4-2 straight up and against the spread on Wednesday night in what seems like an off night considering what we have seen from them lately.

NBA favourites are now 31-4 straight up and 30-5 against the spread over the past five days.

Oilers falter again on home ice

Wednesday night was another rough one for the Edmonton Oilers on home ice.

The Chicago Blackhawks jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first three minutes of the game and cruised to a 4-1 win.

The Oilers were outscored a combined 8-1 in their first two games out of the All-Star break.

They’ve now dropped nine of their past 12 games on home ice.

Edmonton has also lost seven of its past eight on home ice as a betting favourite.

As if things couldn’t get worse for Oilers’ fans, the same team that beat Edmonton 4-0 on Tuesday night lost 6-0 to the rival Calgary Flames last night.

The Flames beat up on the Vegas Golden Knights as a -130 favourite.

Calgary has won four in a row, outscoring their opponents a combined 15-5 over that span.

Betting on Kupp to deliver in Super Bowl

As promised at the beginning of the week, I’ve included at least one Super Bowl recommended play in each of my Morning Coffee columns this week.

This morning, I’ll place a bet on the skill position player oddsmakers believe has the best chance to win Super Bowl MVP outside of the quarterbacks.

On the heels of a dominant regular season, Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Cooper Kupp went right back to work in the NFC Divisional Round and NFC Championship Game.

Kupp averaged 10 receptions on 12.5 targets for 162.5 yards in his last two games.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers and San Francisco 49ers did their best to slow him down but couldn’t contain Kupp in those two games.

He’s also scored a touchdown in each of the Rams’ three playoff games, including two in the NFC Championship.

I think a case can be made that Kupp was L.A.’s MVP against both the Buccaneers and the 49ers, which makes him an interesting MVP candidate for the Super Bowl at +600.

On Wednesday, our NFL analysts Davis Sanchez and Jabari Greer weighed in with their favourite Super Bowl props for Kupp.

I’m going to take Kupp over 8.5 receptions at +105.

We know the Bengals are going to try to limit the big plays that they give up and force Matthew Stafford to complete short to intermediate passes to move the football methodically down the field.

We also know the Stafford-to-Kupp connection has been unstoppable this season, and on the game’s biggest stage it would make sense for Stafford to want to take advantage of that connection.

For as impressive as Odell Beckham Jr. has looked this postseason as a secondary target, tight end Tyler Higbee is dealing with an injury and Van Jefferson is in his second NFL season, so I expect Stafford to look to Kupp early and often versus Cincinnati.

While you could have bet the Kupp over 7.5 receptions -140 last week, I had my eye on alternates anyways and feel comfortable taking the over 8.5 receptions at +105.

With Stafford and Kupp playing in their first Super Bowl together, I’ll bet on them connecting at least nine times. 

Kupp to go over 8.5 receptions at +105 is the play.