Battle on the Ice: Toronto Maple Leafs Take on the Colorado Avalanche in a High-Stakes Showdown

Tonight the Toronto Maple Leafs face off against the Colorado Avalanche for the second and final time this season.

The Leafs took down the defending cup champions 6-2 in their last meeting on New Year's Eve in Denver, in which both Mitch Marner and Auston Mathews both scored highlight-reel goals.

Auston Matthews has been particularly dangerous to the Colorado Avalanche throughout his career. Maybe it’s the matchup with Nathan Mackinnon that has him wired to play the Avs, or maybe it’s just a coincidence. Either way, Matthews has a whopping 10 goals and 6 assists for 16 points in just 11 career games versus the Avalanche. Definitely worth taking as an anytime goalscorer for a prop bet.

Another intriguing stat line is that of Ilya Samsonov, who will start tonight against the Avalanche.

He’s 2–1 in 3 career games versus the Avs with a .905 SV % and a 2.49 GAA in those contests.

He will, of course, have to stay sharp in order to stop the red-hot Nathan Mackinnon, who’s on a five-game goal streak, with nine points in total over that stretch.

Comparatively, Mitch Marner also has nine points in his last five games.

The Leafs currently sit at 5th place in the NHL, and just two points ahead of the Tampa Bay Lightning, meaning any win counts towards valuable points to separate them from Tampa and gain home-ice advantage in the first round.

The Avalanche, however, despite being the defending cup champions, have seen their fair share of struggles this season.

They currently sit at third place in the Central division. With the Winnipeg Jets just one point behind them, a loss tonight could allow the Jets to take third place in the Central, pushing the Avs down to the second wildcard spot in the West.

The projected lines tonight are:

Colorado

Evan Rodrigues - Nathan Mackinnon - Mikko Rantanen

Artturi Lehkonen - J.T Compher - Valeri Nichushkin

Andrew Cogliano - Lars Eller - Logan O’Connor

Denis Malgin - Alex Newhook - Matthew Nieto

Devon Toews - Cale Makar

Samuel Girard - Bowen Byram

Jack Johnson - Brad Hunt

Alexandar Georgiev

Toronto

Calle Jarnkrok - Auston Matthews - Mitch Marner

Michael Bunting - John Tavares - William Nylander

Alex Kerfooot -  Sam Lafferty -  *_____________

Zach Aston-Reese - David Kampf - Noel Acciari

Morgan Rielly - T.J. Brodie

Jake Mccabe - Justin Holl

Mark Giordano - Timothy Liljegren

Erik Gustafsson

Ilya Samsonov

*The Leafs will once again go with 11 forwards and 7 defensemen. Sheldon Keefe has said “the group might realize down the stretch that they are better going 11-7 instead of 12-6 and will run with that in the playoffs,” per Mike Stevens.

Luke Schenn has also reportedly joined the team in Toronto, and Alex Steeves was called up from the Marlies yesterday.