The NHL returned to action on Monday night following a short break for the NHL All-Star festivities with a pretty light schedule.
There’s no question what the best of the two games was as the visiting Carolina Hurricanes met the Toronto Maple Leafs in a game featuring two of the top defensive teams in the Eastern Conference.
With just one goal scored in the first period, there was a chance of the game going under the 6½-goal total set by the NHL betting lines, especially considering that going into the game, no NHL team had allowed fewer goals than the 102 surrendered by Carolina.
However, the Toronto duo of Auston Matthews and Mitchell Marner had other ideas as they combined for all four goals in Toronto’s 4-3 overtime victory. Carolina did cover in the game as the underdog, even though Toronto (-130 moneyline to win) picked up the two points. It was the sixth straight win by the Maple Leafs, tying the Minnesota Wild for the longest active winning streak in the NHL.
Matthews recorded at least two points for his sixth game in a row as he scored his 30th and 31st goals in the final four minutes of the second period to give the Maple Leafs the 2-1 lead. Goals by Tony DeAngelo and Derek Stepan put Carolina back up by a goal. Nino Niederreiter had given Carolina the early one-goal lead with his fourth game in his last seven games.
Marner scored the tying goal with 5:48 left to play and the winner in overtime. It was just the second regular-season overtime goal scored by Marner and his 23rd career game-winning goal. Marner has scored at least one goal in eight straight games. He has 10 goals and nine assists in those eight games.
It wasn’t all positive news as Matthews was knocked out of the game in the final minute of the third period when he appeared to be struck in the back of the head by a passing skater as he fell to the ice. There was no update on his status after the game except that he was “being assessed.”
The two-goal game by Matthews paid +170, the Las Vegas odds given if Matthews topped 1½ points in the game. Matthews finished with seven shots on goal to easily top the total of 3½ set before the game. That carried a moneyline of -155.
Sebastian Aho, Andrei Svechnikov and Vincent Trocheck were all held scoreless for Carolina. The payout for the Hurricane forwards finishing under the half-point total was +130 for Aho, +120 for Svechnikov and -105 for Trocheck.
It took all of 5:49 into the game for Toronto’s Wayne Simmonds and Brendan Smith of Carolina to drop the gloves, so the game having a fight paid +300, while overtime settling the showdown of two of the Eastern Conference contenders had a moneyline of +425.
Coming into the game, Toronto (+450) was tied for the second-best odds to win the Eastern Conference title while Carolina (+550) came in with the fourth-best odds.
The other game was between the visiting Ottawa Senators and the visiting New Jersey Devils.
New Jersey’s list of missing players included forward Jack Hughes, who played in Saturday’s NHL All-Star Game. He entered COVID-10 protocol after returning from Las Vegas.
The Devils struck first on the game’s only power-play goal coming from Nico Hischier. Ottawa got its goals from unlikely sources. Connor Brown scored in his first game since Jan. 13, Adam Gaudette scored his first goal in 10 games. Nick Paul and Nick Holden also scored as Ottawa won 4-1.
The game went under the six-goal total and the three-goal margin of victory by Ottawa paid +550.
The fact that New Jersey scored first but Ottawa won the game and had a moneyline of +170.
Mark Kastelic, a fifth-round pick in the 2019 NHL Draft, recorded his first career point as he had one of the assists on the second-period goal by Nick Holden that proved to be the game-winner.
New Jersey not only played without its second-leading scorer in Hughes, but Ottawa’s No. 1 (Drake Batherson) and No. 3 (Josh Norris) scorers continue to be out of action. Batherson hasn’t played since Jan. 25 and Norris’ last game came on Jan. 27.
The good news is that the Ottawa media reported that Norris’ injured shoulder showed no structural damage, although he could miss another two weeks of action.
Josh Norris will be out at least another two weeks. Everything is structurally sound with the shoulder. #Sens
— Bruce Garrioch (@SunGarrioch) February 7, 2022
Ottawa goalie Matt Murray is now 3-0-1 in his last four starts. He has stopped 128 of his last 133 shots.
