The Devils are looking to get back on track with a home game against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The New Jersey Devils host the Toronto Maple Leafs on Friday night and the puck drops at about 7pm ET. A big side story with this game will certainly revolve around the possible debut of Ilya Kovalchuk (game status unknown at 8am ET, February 5th) but that aside, this game is very important for the Devils.
If they are going to stave off the charge presented by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the race for the Atlantic Division title, the Devils need to rack up the full 2 points when they play against the weak teams like the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The odds for this game with
Bodog are as follows:
Toronto to win straight up, +170 (17/10).
New Jersey to win straight up, -210 (10/21).
Toronto to cover spread (+1.5), -170 (10/17).
New Jersey to cover spread (-1.5), +150 (3/2).
When the short term streaks of these two teams are examined, what you find is that neither of
them have really been playing all that great lately. New Jersey head into this game with a 3-6-1 record in their last 10 games while Toronto are marginally better at 3-5-2 in their last 10.
With neither team on form, the short term history isn't the proper thing to look at in this case because you can't really figure out who has the edge. The home and away splits, however, do provide more insight.
The Maple Leafs are a terrible team on the road this season as they are 8-22 straight up as visitors. New Jersey, at home, are 18-9 on the year and they look like they have a definite edge in this game with the two respective records.
The odds, however, are a tough call at -210 (10/21) even though New Jersey looks strong. With the possibility that Kovalchuk, a profilic scorer, might suit up our recommendation with this game is going to be to pick the Devils to cover the -1.5 goal spread with BetUS at odds of +150 (3/2).
Go to bodog to bet on NHL hockey.