Toronto Maple Leafs at San Jose Sharks
Toronto went into Anaheim last night and came out with a 3-1 win despite being outshot 44-23. Looking back, the Leafs have won five out of seven games since January 1st in which they’ve given up at least 40 shots on net. Seeing as they’re playing back to back games on the road and going to San Jose tonight, they have a good chance to make it six out of eight. The top line of Phil Kessel, Tyler Bozak, and James van Riemsdyk is still rolling, but the second line of Lupul/Kadri/Kulemin has played a bit better of late as well.
San Jose has scored 24 goals in six games since the Olympics and has managed a 4-1-1 record. The team has started to put the clamps down a bit defensively as they’ve only allowed an average of 26.2 shots on goal in those six games. The problem with San Jose is that the top two lines are pretty well-balanced so picking which line will score in a given game can be a coin flip. To make life easier, I would target players from the power play in this one.
The Leafs’ goaltending has the ability to steal any game but one has to think the Sharks just lay the wood to them tonight. I will be stacking the Sharks’ top power play unit in a couple places but will likely out-and-out avoid their goaltending; Toronto’s quick-strike offense makes me nervous on most nights regardless of the opposition.
Top RW Value |
Top LW Value |
Top C Value |
Top D Value |
Bargain Bin |
Nikolai Kulemin $4704 |
Patrick Marleau $12,842 |
(SJS) $13,330 |
(SJS) |
James Sheppard $5157 |
Good luck!