John Tavares will make his highly anticipated return to Long Island on Thursday as the Toronto Maple Leafs visit the New York Islanders in a clash pegged as a virtual pick’em on the NHL odds at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com.
Tavares tallied a goal and an assist in Toronto’s 6-2 rout of the Edmonton Oilers on Wednesday night, which marked the team’s third straight victory ahead of Thursday night’s Maple Leafs vs. Islanders betting matchup at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
But while the Maple Leafs have enjoyed steady success at home, with wins in six of their past seven, they have struggled on the road, falling to defeat in five of their past eight away from Scotiabank Arena, including consecutive losses to Arizona and St. Louis to close out a recent six-game road trip.
The Maple Leafs will face an Islanders squad mired in a slump that threatens to topple them from atop the Metropolitan Division standings. New York is coming off a 3-1 loss to the visiting Calgary Flames as a -115 wager on Tuesday, and has now dropped four of seven overall. The Islanders have also fallen to defeat in four of five meetings with Toronto, but blanked the Maple Leafs 4-0 as +180 road underdogs on December 29.
Elsewhere on the Thursday NHL odds, the Oilers look to rebound from Wednesday’s lopsided loss in Toronto as +200 underdogs as they travel to Ottawa to battle the beleaguered Senators as rare -155 road favourites, while the Vancouver Canucks visit the Coyotes as +120 underdogs.
The Oilers’ fading playoff hopes have all but evaporated during a 3-9-4 run that leaves the club lagging nine points out of the hunt for a wild card in the Western Conference. Edmonton has particularly struggled on the road, losing five straight and 11 of 15 since mid-December.
The Senators are in a freefall as they return home to face the Oilers as +125 underdogs. Ottawa has lost five straight, and 12 of 15 overall, capped by a 7-2 loss in Washington as +265 underdogs on Tuesday in their first outing since a trade deadline fire sale that resulted in the departures of Matt Duchene, Mark Stone, and Ryan Dzingel.
However, the Senators have regularly topped Edmonton with wins in six of their last eight meetings since March 2014, according to the OddsShark NHL Database.
The Canucks travel to the desert riding a three-game losing streak against the Coyotes, and have dropped seven of nine to Arizona, including a pair of one-goal decisions earlier this season.
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