The Game We've All Been Waiting For!
Playoff Showdown Saturday Night in Toronto: Lightning Face Maple Leafs in Game 7
Well, it all comes down to one game.
Deadlocked at 3 games apiece in their best-of-seven Round One playoff series, one of two things will happen:
(1) Either the Tampa Bay Lightning will win their tenth straight playoff series and be very much alive in their quest to contend for what could be a trifecta of Stanley Cups (2000, 2001, and now possibly 2022).
Or,
(2) The Toronto Maple Leafs will finally exorcise the demons of postseasons past and break their playoff drought that's teetering on 18 seasons, and counting.
Something had to give.
The puck drops at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto on Saturday night at 7:00 pm EST / 4:00 pm PST.
Spreads.ca offers the hometown Leafs at 1.79, which comes back at 2.05 on the Lightning. The game total is 6.5 goals.
We can't wait!
Prediction (powered by Pointspreads.ca):
It's really tough, if not impossible, to pick a side given how unpredictable this series has played out, thus far.
One thing's for sure: Both teams should bring their best games to the series finale.
Where we do see a possible edge is in betting the winner of the First Period. This is a prop at Spreads.ca.
The Lighting has led at the end of the opening frame in 4 of 6 playoff games, including each of the last three contests. More precisely, Tampa Bay has been ahead 3-0, 2-0, and 1-0 in each of the last three opening puck drops. So, they have outscored the Leafs 6-0 in the first in the combined three-game stretch.
Yet, the Lightning are small dogs to win the 1st (1.95, if ties push) and 2.90 to win outright (ties lose).
The Stanley Cup champs have come onto the ice fast in all of their last three games, so we'll look for the same result here and take them to be ahead in the First Period.
Note that Tampa Bay has led in three straight games at the end of First Period and outscored the Leafs a combined 6-0. Yet, they are dogs (plus money).
Check out this offering and all the latest odds here at SPREADS.CA:
