Ottawa Senators vs Toronto Maple Leafs NHL Picks, Odds, Predictions 10/14/2021
Toronto Maple Leafs (1-0) vs. Ottawa Senators (0-0)
October 14, 2021 7:00 pm EDT
The Line: Ottawa Senators +151 / Toronto Maple Leafs -189; Over/Under: 6.5
(Get latest betting odds)
The Toronto Maple Leafs and the Ottawa Senators meet in another Battle of Ontario in NHL action from the Canadian Tire Centre on Thursday night.
The Toronto Maple Leafs come into this one on a back-to-back looking to build on their season-opening 2-1 win over Montreal last time out. Montreal opened the scoring just 7:22 into the game but Pierre Engvall got Toronto back in the game just 2:50 later and the 1-1 score held up through the rest of the first and all of the second before William Nylander broke the tie just over one minute into the 3rd period. Toronto had to hold on through being outshot 12-7 in the 3rd, but the Leafs ended up with the W in the end to pick up their opening victory of the year. Jack Campbell got the win after stopping 31 of 32 shots faced in the winning effort.
The Ottawa Senators will be out to open some eyes this season after missing the playoffs for the fourth straight year in 2020-21, finishing the season with a mark of 23-28-5, ending up in 6th in the North division. The Senators big key this season will be returning depth, as their top five and five 30+ points scorers from last year all return, featuring the likes of Drake Batherson, Connor Brown, Josh Norris, Thomas Chabot and leading scorer Brady Tkachuk. The Sens will also be hoping for continued resurgence from the likes of Matt Murray who turned a corner for Ottawa neatr the end of last season.
Toronto is 4-1 in their last 5 games played on no rest and 4-1 in their last 5 division games while the under is 4-1 in their last 5 games as a favorite. Ottawa is 4-1 in their last 5 games overall and 4-10 in their last 14 division games while the under is 4-0 in their last 4 Thursday games.
I get the case that could be made either way here as Toronto is on a back -to-back and banged up but the Senators had their issues last season. The Sens also finished the season strong though and while I’m not sure they do it again here, I think the firepower that we saw from the lineup remains so I’ll be looking at the over here. I think this game has 5-4 written all over it if not 6-5, so give me the over.
