If you bet on the Toronto Maple Leafs to win on Wednesday night, your introduction to Karel Vejmelka was a memorable one.

The Arizona Coyotes’ rookie netminder turned aside 45 of the 46 shots he faced in a 2-1 win over Toronto, including several point-blank saves.

It wasn’t the first time that Vejmelka has stood on his head to help Arizona upset a Canadian team.

Hockey fans in Winnipeg will remember a 46-save performance by Vejmelka in a 1-0 win over the Jets on Nov. 29.

He was just as good on Wednesday night, leading the Coyotes to the upset win as a +270 underdog.

Fortunately, if you tailed our TSN Hockey analyst “Mystic Mike” Mike Johnson, you would have still made a profit despite the Coyotes stealing one.

Here’s the TSN EDGE Morning Coffee for Thursday Jan. 13, 2022.

Vejmelka spoils Matthews’ return to Arizona

There was a lot of hype surrounding Auston Matthews’ return to his home state with a chance to set the franchise record for the most consecutive road games with a goal.

Despite a brilliant performance by Vejmelka, Matthews found a way to deliver for everyone who bet on him to score a goal.

Trailing 1-0 at the start of the third period, Matthews fired a perfect shot past Vejmelka just 14 seconds into the frame.

Matthews anytime goal cashed at -112.

Mystic Mike also hit on Phil Kessel not to record a point.

Unfortunately for M.J. and the Maple Leafs, Ryan Dzingel responded with his second goal of the game 12 minutes later and Vejmelka shut the door the remainder of the way for the win.

If you took a flyer on Arizona money line at +270 you cashed in. In fact, you could have got the Coyotes to cover the puck line at +1.5 (+100).  

The under six goals also cashed.

After dropping two of their past three, the Maple Leafs will continue their road trip against the St. Louis Blues on Saturday night.

Meanwhile, the favourites won each of the other two games on the Wednesday night schedule.

As if this season could get any worse for Habs’ fans, Brad Marchand scored a hat trick as the Boston Bruins (-450) cruised to a 5-1 win over the Canadiens as the biggest favourite on the board.

The Dallas Stars (-235) beat the Seattle Kraken 5-2 in the only other game on the schedule.

The total went over in each of those other two games.

Underdogs deliver in the NBA

Wednesday night was a busy one in the NBA. Hopefully, it wasn’t a night in which you were on the favourites.

NBA underdogs went 8-1 straight up and 9-0 against the spread.

The Brooklyn Nets were 0-8 straight up against top-four teams in each conference entering Wednesday night.

Hopefully, you didn’t bet on that slide continuing against the Chicago Bulls.

The Nets put together a 22-0 run in the second half en route to a 138-112 win over Chicago as a +100 underdog.

Kevin Durant scored 17 of his 27 points in the third quarter. James Harden finished with 25 points and 16 assists.

Meanwhile, the Houston Rockets beat the San Antonio Spurs 128-124 as a +240 money line underdog.

Eric Gordon scored a team-high 31 points, including going 6-of-7 from beyond the arc.

San Antonio has now lost four straight and seven of its past eight overall.

The Charlotte Hornets upset the Philadelphia 76ers 109-98 at +170 on the money line.

The 76ers were previously 13-0 versus Charlotte with Joel Embiid in the lineup entering Wednesday night.

NFL super wild-card weekend preps

On Wednesday morning, I made my first official recommendation for NFL super wild-card weekend.

The play is a two-team, 6.5-point teaser with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers -1.5 against the Philadelphia Eagles and the San Francisco 49ers +9.5 against the Dallas Cowboys.

This morning, I’ll lock in a second play.

New England Patriots running back Damien Harris will go over 55.5 rushing yards against the Buffalo Bills on Saturday night.   

In two games against the Bills this season, Harris ran for 214 yards and four touchdowns on 28 carries, and those numbers might have looked even better if he wasn’t forced to leave their Week 13 meeting with a hamstring injury.

Harris was limited in practice on Wednesday with a hamstring injury, but he played 48 per cent of the Patriots’ snaps in Week 18 despite the way the game script played out in a 33-24 loss to the Miami Dolphins.

I’m willing to bet on him being good to go by the time that Saturday night rolls around.

The Bills know that New England will want to run the football, but that didn’t help them in either of their first two meetings, so why should I expect that to change in the final chapter of this year’s AFC East rivalry?

I’ll take Harris to go over 55.5 rushing yards as my first prop bet for this weekend.