Columbus Blue Jackets at Toronto Maple Leafs - 8/4/20 NHL Picks and Prediction
Photo by John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports
Columbus Blue Jackets (34-22-15) at Toronto Maple Leafs (36-26-9)
NHL Hockey: Tuesday, August 4, 2020 at 4:00 pm (Scotiabank Arena)
The Line: Toronto Maple Leafs -145 / Columbus Blue Jackets +125 --- Over/Under: 5.5 Click Here for the Latest Odds
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The Columbus Blue Jackets and the Toronto Maple Leafs meet in game two of their qualifying round series from Scotiabank Arena on Tuesday afternoon.
The Columbus Blue Jackets will try to push the Leafs to the brink after taking game one on Sunday by a final score of 2-0. The two sides would trade chances over the first two periods, but neither side would be able to break through and find a goal from their opening 40 minutes of play. Cam Atkinson would finally give Columbus the lead 1:05 into the 3rd period and Toronto would pressure for a tying goal that wouldn’t come as Alex Wennberg added an insurance goal on an empty net in the final minute of play.
Joonas Korpisalo got the win in his postseason debut, stopping all 28 shots faced for the first shutout in Blue Jackets’ postseason history while Frederik Andersen took the loss after allowing one goal on 34 shots faced in the losing effort.
Columbus is 3-7 in their last 10 games against a team with a winning record and 6-2 in their last 8 playoff games as an underdog while the under is 4-0 in their last 4 games overall. Toronto is 1-4 in their last 5 games overall and 0-5 in their last 5 games against a team with a losing record while the over is 15-4 in their last 19 games against the Metropolitan division. The favorite is 5-2 in the last 7 meetings between these two teams.
One thing was clear for Toronto in game one and that’s that the Blue Jackets aren’t here to play games, that they’re here to make a statement and are you really surprised from a John Tortorella coached team? The Jackets are balanced and look like a legitimate threat to Toronto’s season. With that said, I think the game opens up a bit in game two, but I still see the goals being a lot harder to come by than one would expect. I can see this being a 3-1 or 3-2 game either way, so I’ll side with the under as my pick for this game but it’s a lean at best.
Chris’s Pick Under 5.5
AUTHOR: Chris Ruffolo
Mitch's Take...
