Toronto Maple Leafs at Columbus Blue Jackets - 8/7/20 NHL Picks and Prediction
Photo by John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports
Toronto Maple Leafs (37-26-9) at Columbus Blue Jackets (34-23-15)
NHL Hockey: Friday, August 7, 2020 at 8:00 pm (Scotiabank Arena)
The Line: Columbus Blue Jackets +126 / Toronto Maple Leafs -156 --- Over/Under: 5.5 Click Here for the Latest Odds
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The Columbus Blue Jackets and Toronto Maple Leafs meet Friday in game four of the NHL East Qualifying action at the Scotiabank Arena.
The Columbus Blue Jackets have a chance to close out the series and advance to the next round of the playoffs. The Columbus Blue Jackets are averaging two goals per game and are scoring on zero percent of their power play opportunities. Pierre-Luc Dubois leads Columbus with three goals, Cam Atkinson has three assists and Alexandre Texier has 10 shots on goal. Defensively, the Columbus Blue Jackets are allowing two goals per game and are killing 87.5 percent of their opponents power plays. Joonas Korpisalo has given up five goals on 81 shots faced and Elvis Merzlikins has allowed zero goals on 21 shots.
The Toronto Maple Leafs need a victory here to save their season and force a game five on Sunday. The Toronto Maple Leafs are averaging two goals per game and are scoring on 12.5 percent of their power play opportunities. Auston Matthews leads Toronto with one goal, Alexander Kerfoot has three assists and John Tavares has 13 shots on goal. Defensively, the Toronto Maple Leafs are allowing two goals per game and are killing 100 percent of their opponents power plays. Frederik Andersen has given up five goals on 97 shots faced.
The road team is 4-1 in the last 5 meetings. The favorite is 6-2 in the last 8 meetings. The under is 4-1-2 in the last 7 meetings.
The Toronto Maple Leafs are a very talented team that has the ability to climb out of this whole and advance to the next round. The issue I have is that the Maple Leafs can't be all that high on confidence after having a 3-0 lead in game three last night and blowing it in overtime. The Maple Leafs let a game off the hook and it's exactly easy to put that out of your mind and put together another strong effort. Meanwhile, the Blue Jackets have to be on cloud nine and should smell blood in the water. Massive momentum shift in this series.
I'll take the Blue Jackets and the plus money.
Randy’s Pick Columbus Blue Jackets +126
AUTHOR: Randy Chambers
Mitch's Take...
