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The Toronto Maple Leafs and Columbus Blue Jackets meet Monday in NHL action at the Nationwide Arena. The Toronto Maple Leafs need a win after losing five of their last eight games. The Columbus Blue Jackets need a win after losing four of their last five games.
The Toronto Maple Leafs are averaging 3.6 goals per game and are scoring on 29 percent of their power play opportunities. Auston Matthews leads Toronto with 39 goals, Morgan Rielly has 39 assists and William Nylander has 180 shots on goal. Defensively, the Toronto Maple Leafs are allowing 2.9 goals per game and are killing 84.2 percent of their opponent’s power plays. Jack Campbell has given up 97 goals on 1,142 shots faced, and Petr Mrazek has allowed 41 goals on 374 shots.
The Columbus Blue Jackets are averaging 3.3 goals per game and are scoring on 18.1 percent of their power play opportunities. Boone Jenner leads Columbus with 23 goals, Jakub Voracek has 39 assists and Zach Werenski has 162 shots on goal. Defensively, the Columbus Blue Jackets are allowing 3.6 goals per game and are killing 80 percent of their opponent’s power plays. Elvis Merzlikins has allowed 113 goals on 1,168 shots faced, and Joonas Korpisalo has allowed 62 goals on 548 shots.
The Maple Leafs are 4-1 in their last 5 Monday games and 33-15 in their last 48 overall. The Blue Jackets are 5-1 in their last 6 vs. Atlantic and 1-4 in their last 5 overall. The over is 23-8-2 in Maple Leafs last 33 overall. The over is 34-14-4 in Blue Jackets last 52 overall. The over is 6-2-2 in the last 10 meetings in Columbus and 3-1-1 in the last 5 meetings.
The Toronto Maple Leafs should be favored based off what they’ve done this season, and they’re the better team overall, but the bottom line here is both of these clubs are coming off rough weeks, and you shouldn’t be thrilled to lay big juice with either side. The Columbus Blue Jackets are at home here, and they have the offensive horses to hang with the Maple Leafs. I’ll take a shot with the big plus money and the home team.