Mar 19, 2021
Morning Coffee: McDavid closes gap in Rocket Richard Trophy race
The March Madness has arrived. Underdogs went 4-0 against the spread and 3-1 straight up in the First Four games on Thursday night. Norfolk State (+145), UCLA (+125), and Texas Southern (+105) all delivered outright wins, while Wichita State covered as a two-point underdog in a 53-52 loss to Drake. Finally, the field of 64 is set with the first round set to tip off at 12:15 p.m. ET later today. Here is the Morning Coffee for Friday March 19, 2021.
The March Madness has arrived.
Underdogs went 4-0 against the spread and 3-1 straight up in the First Four games on Thursday night.
Norfolk State (+145), UCLA (+125), and Texas Southern (+105) all delivered outright wins, while Wichita State covered as a two-point underdog in a 53-52 loss to Drake.
Finally, the field of 64 is set with the first round set to tip off at 12:15 p.m. ET later today.
TSN is your home for all of March Madness, with complete coverage across all of our platforms, including right here at TSN Edge.
Here is the Morning Coffee for Friday March 19, 2021.
McDavid Closes In On NHL Goal Scoring Lead
Connor McDavid scored twice for the Edmonton Oilers in a 2-1 win over the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday night.
Tyson Barrie assisted on both goals and leads all NHL defencemen with 30 points this season.
McDavid, who recorded No. 19 and No. 20 on the season, is now one back of Auston Matthews for the NHL goal-scoring lead.
Yes, McDavid has played six more games than Matthews. Also, the Maple Leafs still have three games in hand on Edmonton.
Still, the only number that will matter in the Rocket Richard Trophy race at the end of the season is the total number of goals scored, and right now the differential between Matthews and McDavid is one.
It’s been three weeks since I pointed out in this column that while a lot of people were wondering whether Matthews could contend with McDavid for the Hart, there weren’t many people talking about McDavid beating out Matthews for the Rocket Richard.
As of this morning, McDavid is -200 to win the Hart – Matthews is +550.
On the flip side, the odds to win the Rocket are currently off the board.
With eight weeks remaining in the season, the NHL goal-scoring race is once again wide open.
Vasilevskiy Remains Vezina Favourite
On the topic of NHL awards, the league’s Vezina Trophy favourite picked up another win last night.
Andrei Vasilevskiy turned aside 19 of the 21 shots he faced as the Tampa Bay Lightning (-260) beat the Chicago Blackhawks 4-2.
Vasilevskiy improved to 19-3-1 with a 1.90 goals-against average and a .932 save percentage this season. He’s 7-0-0 with a 2.22 GAA and a .917 SV% in the month of March.
As of this morning, Vasilevskiy is +105 to win the Vezina trophy, followed by Marc-Andre Fleury (+400) and Philipp Grubauer (+700).
Victor Hedman, who is the current Norris Trophy favourite at +150 odds, picked up a goal and an assist in the win.
March Madness First Round Props
In addition to watching how the bracket plays out, there are some fun March Madness props worth keeping an eye out for as the tournament begins.
Will there be a game-winning buzzer beater in the first round? Right now, the YES option is -130 while the NO is +110.
Keep in mind, in order to qualify as a game-winning buzzer beater the shot has to swing the result with triple zeroes on the board.
The prop for the total number of games that go to overtime in the first round is set at 1.5.
Will a 12-seed win a game outright? The YES is -450 while the NO option is +300.
Will a team forfeit at any point in the tournament? The oddsmakers aren’t expecting it to happen as the YES option is +140 while the NO is -170.