Oddsmakers have Leafs as slight underdog in playoff series against Bruins

The Toronto Maple Leafs are up for a familiar challenge, as they head on the road to TD Garden this weekend for their first playoff game.

They’ll be taking on the Boston Bruins for the fourth time in an opening playoff round since 2013, having dropped all three previous matchups in seven games.

And if the franchise is to change their fortunes around, well, they’re going to need to beat the odds to do it.

According to today’s lines at FanDuel, the Leafs hold +100 odds to beat the Bruins, while the Bruins are carrying -120 odds as the favourite. If you bet $1 on the Bruins, you’d return $1.83 with a win, or 83 cents in profit, compared to an even $2 win on a $1 bet for the Leafs, exactly doubling your profit.

Toronto closed their regular season out with a 6-4 loss against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday night. And with the matchup having already been set against Boston prior to the game, Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe admitted they may have already been looking ahead to the weekend a little bit.

“It is a great team. Either way, we were going to be facing a very good team. Now that we know who it is, we will do all we can to prepare for it,” Keefe said. “I am not afraid to admit to you that this is the first regular-season game where I was watching video of another team during the intermissions. We are working all we can to get ourselves prepared and ready to go. That is where our mind is at.”

And while the NHL has yet to release the full schedule for the series at press time, we do know that Game 1 will be Saturday at 8 pm at Boston’s TD Garden.

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