Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Montreal Canadiens: Prediction, Preview, Picks & Odds - 1/21/2023

Time: 7 p.m. ET

Venue: Bell Centre, Montreal, QE

Where to watch: CBC, TVAS, SNE, SNO, SNP, NHLN

DraftKings: Maple Leafs -295, Canadiens +245

FanDuel: Maple Leafs -310, Canadiens +245

BetMGM: Maple Leafs -295, Canadiens +245

Caesars: Maple Leafs -300, Canadiens +245

Maple Leafs: 28-11-7

Canadiens: 19-24-3

There will forever be an angling between the Montreal Canadiens and the Toronto Maple Leafs whenever these two play each other and when that is the case, you can never take Montreal too lightly and that is why Montreal is looking for his third win in four games as the Maple Leafs head to Montreal for the showdown on Saturday.

 

Toronto is coming in to this one having won two in a row after dropping two straight games earlier this week. The Maple Leafs are coming off a win over the Florida Panthers and a win over the Winnipeg Jets, the latter being a 4-1 decision for Toronto on Thursday.

 

Auston Matthews scored twice, and Mitch marner had a shorthanded goal to pace what was a dominant second period for Toronto to take a 3-0 lead. Kyle Connor added one to get Winnipeg on the board in the third period but that was all The Jets could muster off a dominant 37 save performance from Ilya Samsonov.

 

"It's a big win for us, but the game definitely could have been a lot closer had it not been for [Ilya Samsonov], so obviously he was dialed in tonight," Matthews said. "It was a huge effort by him."

 

Slowly but surely we have been able to see what Toronto can do when they get their whole line rolling. And I'm not talking about one specific line, I am talking about what Toronto can do from the standpoint of winning games that they are not normally accustomed to winning. But the one thing that we need to take into consideration is that Matthews has not been healthy all season long. Though that has been evident and what Toronto has been able to do and if their superstar is not able to play to the level of which he does then everyone else needs to pick up the pace, which is why Marner has been one of the best secondary players in the game this year.

 

Montreal is trying to win its third game in the last four but it is in need of a serious rebounding effort after losing 6-2 to the Florida Panthers on Thursday. The fact that Montreal was able to get a win over the New York Rangers and even dominate the Winnipeg Jets in that kind of fashion, it was sort of a shock to see Montreal fall flat against Florida. They failed to score in their five power play attempts and killed off only four of an astounding eight power play opportunities for Florida.

 

Montreal gave up four power play goals in the second period and the only scoring that the Canadians had to their advantage was Rem Pitlick and Josh Anderson. Outside of that, not the best day for Montreal.

 

"We took two too-many-men penalties; there is no excuse for that," Montreal coach Martin St. Louis said. "That's a lack of alertness by the players for those penalties. After the first period, we were managing the game, and in the second we shot ourselves in the foot."

 

 

The Canadians are in a be an up and down team for the rest of the year unless they go on the diculous run that pushes them to the playoffs. So they are going to have nights where they just forget how to play collective team hockey. That being said, Toronto was starting to click and I think this is the kind of game that shows the way that they can shine. Maple Leafs 5, Canadiens 3

Maple Leafs 11-3 in their last 14 against teams with losing records.

Maple Leafs 5-2 in their last 7 overall.

Canadiens are 0-6 in their last six against Atlantic Division teams.

Home team has won the last five meetings.

Michael Bunting - Auston Matthews -- William Nylander

Calle Jarnkrok -- John Tavares -- Mitchell Marner

Bobby McMann -- David Kampf -- Pierre Engvall

Zach Aston-Reese -- Alexander Kerfoot -- Dryden Hunt

Morgan Rielly -- Timothy Liljegren

Mark Giordano -- Justin Holl

Rasmus Sandin -- Jordie Benn

Ilya Samsonov

Cole Caufield -- Nick Suzuki -- Jonathan Drouin

Mike Hoffman -- Kirby Dach -- Josh Anderson

Evgenii Dadonov -- Christian Dvorak -- Jesse Ylonen

Michael Pezzetta -- Rem Pitlick -- Rafael Harvey-Pinard

Jordan Harris -- David Savard

Joel Edmundson -- Justin Barron

Mike Matheson -- Johnathan Kovacevic

Sam Montembeault