Maple leaves from Toronto
The Maple Leafs finally made it through the first round of the playoffs. It seemed that after such an incredible success by Toronto standards, Maple Leaves would gain courage and continue to delight their fans with a nice game. But the series with Florida is not going well Toronto – after three games the Maple Leafs are already on the brink, and the visitors are unlikely to be able to save themselves. The Maple Leafs lost the first game of the series with little chance, but in the next two matches Toronto had a serious advantage: in the second game the Maple Leafs led by two goals, and in the third game the Canadians led twice on account, but still conceded. Tonight Toronto can play the last game of the season. Of course, the Maple Leaves will still try to win back, but the chances of that are quite slim to be honest. All matches in this series are similar in terms of performance – teams with huge offensive potential have never scored a total of 6 goals. Will it happen today? A very big question.
Panthers from Florida
Florida is one of the playoffs’ greatest discoveries: the Panthers defeated Boston in the first round of the playoffs, although the Bruins showed top-notch hockey throughout the regular season. And now Florida is making its fans happy again – the Panthers have a simply wonderful series against Toronto. Of course, the Panthers will not let go of this series, but today the hosts may lack motivation, because the Panthers have as many as three margins of error. Florida’s main achievement is that the Panthers were able to block the opponent’s star attack – in each game of this series, the Maple Leaves scored two goals. Don’t expect too bright a battle today either.
Forecast
Despite the fact that Toronto and Florida have a large number of cool offensive players, the Maple Leafs and Panthers series are not the most pleasant – both teams have never scored 7+ goals. But as the quotes show, bookmakers still believe that teams will eventually arrange a penalty shootout. But I believe “Maple Leaves” and “Panthers” will give another not the brightest match – I take less than 7 in total.