Mar 15, 2023
Morning Coffee: A FanDuel Best Bet For Avs, Leafs
The Maple Leafs are a -152 money line favourite for tonight’s showdown with the defending Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche. Will Toronto take care of business on home ice? This is the Morning Coffee for Wednesday March 15th, 2023.
The Toronto Maple Leafs are once again among the top three choices to win the Stanley Cup at FanDuel.
Tonight, they’ll face another tough test against one of the two teams that are ahead of them on that list.
The Maple Leafs are a -152 money line favourite for tonight’s showdown with the defending Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche.
Will Toronto take care of business on home ice?
According to FanDuel, the Maple Leafs are already firmly entrenched among the top Stanley Cup contenders.
While it’s just one regular season game, I get the feeling that tonight’s contest is going to mean just a little more for hockey fans in Toronto that believe this is the year that the championship drought ends.
This is the Morning Coffee for Wednesday March 15th, 2023.
A FanDuel Best Bet For Avs, Leafs
A lot has changed since the 2022-23 Stanley Cup winner market was first posted at FanDuel last summer.
At the time, Colorado was the favourite at +500.
The Maple Leafs were the second choice at +900.
While Toronto’s odds have fluctuated throughout the season, they are back where they started this morning.
The big difference now is that there is another Eastern Conference team in front of them in the Boston Bruins, which could be found as high as +2800 to win it all in September but are now the favourite at +400.
There’s no doubt that the Maple Leafs have a tougher road to the Stanley Cup Finals than tonight’s opponent.
The Avalanche are currently +700 to win it all again.
In order to repeat, Colorado could certainly use a strong finish to improve its position in the standings and secure home ice advantage for at least the first round.
Despite currently sitting at third in the Central Division standings, the Avalanche remain the favourite to win the Western Conference.
Colorado still has two games in hand on the Minnesota Wild and three games in hand on the Dallas Stars, which are the two teams they are chasing in the Central Division standings.
As for tonight’s game, I think we are in for another high scoring contest.
Toronto has scored 3+ goals in five of its past six home games.
The over has hit in four of them.
Meanwhile, the Avalanche are coming off an 8-4 win over the Montreal Canadiens and are capable of scoring goals in bunches as well.
The biggest problem for Colorado of late is that they have allowed a ton of goals as well, giving up 4+ in four of their past seven games.
I’ll take the over 6.5 at -110 as my FanDuel Best Bet for tonight’s showdown.
Blackhawks Stun Bruins As Massive Home Underdog
In case you missed it, the dogs were barking in the NHL again last night.
The Chicago Blackhawks gave us the biggest upset of the night.
The Blackhawks beat the Bruins 6-3 as a +385 money line underdog on home ice.
It was Boston’s 11th regulation loss in 66 games this season.
Management in Chicago must have loved that one.
Elsewhere, the Montreal Canadiens completed the season sweep of the Pittsburgh Penguins on the road.
Montreal closed as a +270 money line underdog.
The Arizona Coyotes took down the Calgary Flames 4-3 in overtime as a +205 ML dog.
The Tampa Bay Lightning beat the New Jersey Devils 4-1 as a +110 ML underdog.
The Vancouver Canucks upset the Dallas Stars 5-2 on home ice as a +118 ML underdog.
Finally, the Columbus Blue Jackets beat the San Jose Sharks 6-5 in overtime as a +116 ML dog.
That could turn out to be an important point once the NHL Draft Lottery rolls around at the end of the season.
VanVleet Leads Raptors To Win Over Nuggets
Fred VanVleet scored a game-high 36 points as the Toronto Raptors beat the Denver Nuggets 125-110 to snap a three-game slide.
The Raptors handed the Nuggets their fourth straight loss in the process, leading to this from head coach Michael Malone.
While Denver is still comfortably in first place in the Western Conference, Toronto is fighting for a spot in the play-in.
FanDuel has the Raptors at +138 to make the playoffs and -170 to miss the playoffs.
Toronto is back in action on Thursday night at home against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The Raptors are at home for six of their next seven overall.
They’ll need to rack up some wins before closing out their season with three games against the Boston Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks in order to make sure they don’t miss the play-in.