The Toronto Maple Leafs’ roller coaster continues for a second straight night as they take on the New Jersey Devils on the backend of a home-and-home set. If you’re betting on the Leafs of late, strap in, because it has been a wild ride over the last three weeks as last night's 7-4 victory proves.
Can the Devils avoid their fifth straight loss? Can the Buds play a solid 60 minutes and stop relying on dramatic comebacks versus bad teams to pick up wins? Find out in our free NHL picks and predictions for Maple Leafs vs Devils on February 1.
Maple Leafs vs Devils odds
This odds widget represents the best odds available for each betting market from regulated sportsbooks.
Toronto opened up at -200 and has moved slightly to -215 with a total of 6.5. Last night’s game in Toronto closed with the Leafs as -360 favorites on the moneyline and a total of 6.5.
Use the live odds widget above to track any future line movements right until puck drop and be sure to check out the full NHL odds before betting to ensure you get the best number.
Maple Leafs vs Devils predictions
- Prediction: Maple Leafs -1.5 (+115)
- Prediction: Over 6.5 (+100)
- Best bet: Both teams to score in 1P (+150)
Predictions made on 2/01/2022 at 9:00 a.m. ET.
Click on each prediction to jump to the full analysis.
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Maple Leafs vs Devils game info
• Location: Prudential Center, Newark, NJ
• Date: Tuesday, February 1, 2022
• Puck drop: 7:00 p.m. ET
• TV: MSG, TSN4
Maple Leafs vs Devils betting preview
Key injuries
Maple Leafs: Jake Muzzin D (Out), Nick Ritchie F (Questionable).
Devils: Michael McLeod F (Out), Mackenzie Blackwood G (Out), Dougie Hamilton D (Out), Jonathan Bernier G (Out).
Find our latest NHL injury reports.
Maple Leafs vs Devils head-to-head record (since 2018)
Maple Leafs: 6-1 SU, 36 goals for.
Devils: 1-6 SU, 17 goals for.
Betting trend to know
The Maple Leafs are 12-2 SU in their last 14 games as a road favorite. Find more NHL betting trends for Maple Leafs vs. Devils.
Maple Leafs vs Devils picks and predictions
Our predictions are compiled from the analysis of the spread and total and are indications of where we are leaning for this game.
Our best bet is the play that we like the most for this game, which we would actually put some of our bankroll behind.
Puck line analysis
The emotions that the Maple Leafs have put bettors through over the last week have ranged from infuriating to alleviated. The Leafs have won three straight games — covering in two — but have trailed by as many as two goals in each of those games. They scored four times in the third period last night versus New Jersey to win 6-4, and potted five goals in the final frame Saturday night versus Detroit to win 7-4.
Goaltending and some soft defense has put this team in some early holes, and facing some weaker teams has certainly helped, but this is still a team that is 10-3 SU in its last 13 games and faces a New Jersey team that is 1-7 SU in its last eight. Toronto might be a great team to bet against versus a stronger opponent, but tonight is not that night.
The Toronto offense has not been an issue of late and is absolutely cruising right now. The first line of Bunting-Matthews-Marner is unstoppable, as Auston Matthews had a hat trick last night, Michael Bunting scored three on Saturday and Mitch Marner has scored a goal in six straight games. Sheldon Keefe has ended the three-line experiment and has put his core four on the top-two lines. It could be another big night for the Toronto offense, facing likely starter Jon Gillies.
With Akira Schmid starting last night for the Devils, the home side will likely turn to Gillies tonight with their other two goalies, Jonathan Bernier and Mackenzie Blackwood, out. Gillies has just seven NHL starts to his name and his 2.94 GAA isn’t giving us much confidence in the underdogs.
Gillies is the team’s No. 3 goalie and has allowed three or more goals in all but one of his seven starts this year. The Devils have allowed the second-most 5-on-5 goals this season and allow high-danger chances at a Top-8 rate. Stopping Toronto at even strength is the biggest key for any opponent facing the Buds, which makes this a bad matchup for New Jersey, as the Leafs seemed to score at will on Monday night.
Toronto has been a frustrating team to watch of late, but most of the struggles have come in net, as Jack Campbell’s production is regressing hard to the mean after an incredible start to the season. Keefe said his choice in net will come later in the day. We’d prefer Mrazek at this point, but expect Campbell to level out his play eventually. The Leafs have proven they can still cover the puck line when giving up three or four goals, and considering the Buds basically failed to score a power-play goal last night and own the best PP in the league, putting up five or six goals tonight is highly probable.
Another supporting stat is the Leafs’ ability to win in the face-off circle. Gaining possession in the O-zone off the draw is a very underappreciated skill and no team is better in the dot than the Leafs, at 56% on the year. They won 64% of the draws last night and are still a threat to score when they lose an offensive-zone faceoff.
Six straight games with a goal for Mitch Marner (@Marner93)! ???? pic.twitter.com/XAMqcKR84S
— NHL (@NHL) February 1, 2022
With nobody in the stands at Scotiabank Arena, it’s hard to say the Leafs have a home-ice advantage, so the difference from last night’s -360 moneyline and tonight’s -215 ML might be a little long. Toronto closed at -265 in Detroit Saturday night, which makes tonight's price seem a little short and should be closer to -260 with Gillies in net. We’re riding the roller coaster again and taking the Leafs -1.5 and hoping they can go wire-to-wire tonight.
Prediction: Maple Leafs -1.5 (+115)
Over/Under analysis
The Leafs were one of the best Under teams to begin the season as Jack Campbell was playing at a Vezina level. Well, he is regressing, and now the Leafs are 14-4-1 to the Over since the end of November.
Defensively, the Leafs make a ton of mistakes, which creates two-way scoring nightly. With Jake Muzzin on the shelf, this is still a small defensive group and having Rasmus Sandin and Justin Holl as your No. 2 pairing and Travis Dermott and Timothy Liljegren as the No. 3 is frightening for whoever starts in net tonight. The Devils showed they can outmuscle this smaller Leafs’ defense, which should help the home side in hitting the Over.
Liljegren doesn't look good in this play pic.twitter.com/iHq28zJEeL
— Omar (@TicTacTOmar) February 1, 2022
The Devils should be good for two or three goals tonight but it’s the Leafs’ offense that will be doing the heavy lifting. The top line is on fire as we mentioned above. The second line is being driven by Alex Kerfoot, who has back-to-back multi-point games while defenseman Morgan Rielly has four multi-point games over his last six games. Add in a power play that has five goals over the last three games and is scoring at a 31% rate, and we could be seeing this offense at its peak right now. It's averaging 4.00 goals per game over its last 10 while also allowing 3.10, which makes for great Over hockey.
With solid goaltending a thing of the past for the Buds, there is only one way to hit this total, and that’s to the Over. We could be seeing Mrazek vs. Gillies and getting even money on the Over 6.5. We saw eight even-strength goals last night and with the 5-on-5 matchup, these numbers could be repeatable. Anything else on the power play could just be icing on the cake.
Prediction: Over 6.5 (+100)
Best bet
Since the beginning of the month, the Leafs have scored 19 first-period goals over 10 games which is the best output in the league over that stretch. Conversely, they’ve also struggled to keep their opponents off the board in the first period and are allowing 1.0 first-period goals per game over their last 10.
Because of this, the Leafs have hit the "both teams to score (BTTS)" prop in the first period in six straight games with average odds of +150. First period Over 1.5 odds are tough to swallow, but with the Leafs’ high-scoring first periods of late, getting 1P BTTS +150 is a deal and is a lesser-known market that is exploitable. We love the BTTS 1P market and it’s been padding our pockets of late.
Pick: Both teams to score in the first period (+150)
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