The Winnipeg Jets continue to be underestimated by oddsmakers.

Tuesday night’s 4-3 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs was another example of that.

The Jets, winners of six of their past eight overall, were a +160 underdog in Toronto.

With the win, Winnipeg improved to 5-1 over its past six games as a betting underdog.

Here is the Morning Coffee for Wednesday March 10, 2021.

Jets Underestimated By Oddsmakers

It makes sense that the Jets would be an underdog on the road against the best team in the division.

Still, +160 seemed like pretty good value for a Winnipeg side that is 11-6-1 since the start of February.

I thought the same thing about the Jets last week when they were an underdog in back-to-back wins over the Montreal Canadiens on home ice.

Then last week, Winnipeg beat that same struggling Habs side in Montreal as a +130 underdog.

On Tuesday night, eight of the nine NHL favourites won. The Jets were the only underdog to earn a victory.

 

Eventually, the oddsmakers will catch on to Winnipeg if they can continue to win games.

However, Winnipeg and Toronto are set to meet twice more this week, on Thursday and Saturday.

The Jets will undoubtedly be underdogs for both games, and I think they should be – I don’t expect them to go in to Toronto and sweep the Maple Leafs in a three-game set.

However, it will be interesting to see what happens going forward over the next couple of weeks and whether Winnipeg continues to be underestimated by oddsmakers on a nightly basis.

If they do, anyone paying close enough attention will be there to jump on it.

 

Maple Leafs Suffer First Slide Of Season

On the flip side of the lone upset on last night’s NHL slate, the Maple Leafs find themselves in the midst of their first losing streak of the season.

Toronto avoided back-to-back losses in regulation throughout January and February.

Now they’ve lost three straight in regulation for the first time since November of 2019.

 

It’s Toronto’s first three-game slide under head coach Sheldon Keefe.

While three straight regulation losses is rare enough to be a story for this team, it seemed inevitable that the Maple Leafs would eventually deal with some sort of lull following their blazing start to the season.

Toronto is still five points clear of Winnipeg atop the division, although with two more games played.

Is it possible that this team might have taken its foot off the pedal a little bit?

Or is there something more to their current slide?

Considering the situation they find themselves in for the first time in a long time, the Maple Leafs could very well be an even bigger favourite for Thursday’s rematch against the Jets as they look to snap their slide.

 

Gonzaga Wins WCC Championship

The top-ranked Gonzaga Bulldog extended their undefeated season with an 88-78 win over BYU to win the WCC Championship on Tuesday night.

The Bulldogs will be just the fifth team to enter the NCAA Tournament with a perfect record since Indiana’s perfect championship season all the way back in 1975-76.

The only surprise is that the Bulldogs didn’t cover as a 14.5-point favourite.

This stat from ESPN Stats & Info is just remarkable.

While they didn’t cover, the Zags extended their streak of double-digit wins to 23 in a row – the longest such streak by any Division 1 team over the last 60 seasons.

Gonzaga is the obvious favourite to win the NCAA tournament at +250 odds.

All eyes will be on the Zags to see how far they can stretch not only their perfect season but also their run of double-digit victories.