NHL Odds, Preview, Prediction: Maple Leafs vs Golden Knights (Thursday, February 22)

Here is all the information you require for Thursday, February 22’s Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Vegas Golden Knights game, including our professional NHL prediction and selection.

After losing Morgan Rielly due to suspension, Toronto has been playing quite well. The Maple Leafs defeated the Coyotes last night to get to 5-0.

Rielly’s return means the Leafs can play at their best going forward. It’s a solid beginning, but they still have a ways to go before leading the Atlantic Division.

Vegas has recently experienced it, particularly in light of its injury problems. The Golden Knights have gone 5-4-1 in their previous ten games after losing to the Predators on Tuesday. Fortunately, they have an excellent record at home (19-8-2).

Here is my prediction and pick for tonight’s Maple Leafs vs. Golden Knights game.

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Heading The Toronto Maple Leafs’ original logo
Auston Matthews created history last night.

Matthews became the first player born in the United States to score 50 goals in a season.

In addition, he has scored nine goals in his past four games, including two hat tricks in a row.

Beside him, Mitch Marner has 17 points in his previous eight games, and William Nylander has scored goals in five straight games.

It should come as no surprise that the Leafs are among the top 5-on-5 teams given their arsenal of weapons. They are ranked 11th defensively with a 2.53 xGA/60 and 12th in anticipated goals with a 51.38 xGF% for the previous month.

Toronto has possessed one of the top power plays for many years, and this year is no exception. It is ranked second, scoring at a rate of 28.7%, but at 77.4%, the penalty kill needs improvement.

Ilya Samsonov started last night, therefore Martin Jones will most likely suit up for Toronto. Considering his career numbers, Jones has performed fairly well. The problem is that he has had a really dismal record over the last seven games.860 SV%, making him already susceptible.

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Header: Vegas Golden Knights First Logo
A man goes down and another man comes up.

After Tuesday’s defeat, the Golden Knights activated captain Mark Stone on Shea Theodore, who had been placed on injured reserve. Vegas has suffered a great deal of injuries, but fortunately Jonathan Marchessault has been a prolific scorer. Not to mention, Nicolas Roy and Ivan Barbashev have shown to be incredibly important.

Vegas’s 5-on-5 performance has been comparatively unproductive during this difficult period. It is ranked 13th this month with a 2.58 xGA/60 and 23rd with a 45.99 xGF% this month.

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Up until then, the Knights’ special teams haven’t done anything particularly noteworthy. Their penalty kill percentage of 80.6% has been respectable, and they have scored on the power play slightly less than 20% of the time.

Adin Hill between the pipes tonight is something I absolutely expect to witness. Vegas has relied on Hill to be their guy even though he has lost in his last three games. He still has a stifling goal average after playing to sub-.900 hockey in the last three games.With a third-best 19.0 goals saved over expectation (GSAx) and 929 SV%.

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Header 1 Logo Golden Knights vs. Maple Leafs Pick & Prediction

You’d think there might be less gas after the Maple Leafs and Coyotes got into a fight last night. Toronto is 4-3 after back-to-back games, which is good but also erratic.

The Leafs’ situation is concerning with Jones in goal. His recent run of play is concerning, and Toronto struggles with goaltending in general.

Jack Eichel will be absent from Vegas once more, and now Stone too. It’s not ideal to be without two of the team’s top scorers, and Hill hasn’t performed like a top goalkeeper in the last several games. I do appreciate the depth of the Knights, though. They never stop growing, and they always bring the next man up.

Although it’s a close game, I’m rooting for the Leafs this evening. They’re 16-6-6 on the road despite their unpredictable nature at the end of back-to-back games. Even if Vegas is effective at T-Mobile Arena, Toronto has demonstrated that it can perform better when the odds are stacked against it.

The odds for the Leafs are generally available at +100, but we’ll take advantage of the outlier, which is currently available at +110 at PointsBet. Reduce the volume to -105.