Posted at 10:30 AM EST. Odds subject to change.

Pinnacle -½ +118 BET365 -½ +115 Sportsinteraction -½ +110   888Sport -½ +110 

Toronto -½ +118 over Washington

7:07 PM EST. The Maple Leafs have little to do with this selection tonight, but we don’t mind that Toronto comes into this game after losing back-to-back one-goal contests to the Flyers and Hurricanes. The Leafs’ stock is down not only with the losses but also due to the absence of Mitch Marner, who has now missed four games with an ankle injury, and he is not expected to play tonight. While the Leafs did play last night in Philadelphia, they had two full days off beforehand and have only played three games since March 10.

Enter the Capitals, who are the reason we are here, as they are arguably the hottest team in the East after going 10-1-4 over their last 15 games to vault themselves into Wild Card contention and a look at third place in the Metropolitan Division, where they now trail Philadelphia by three points with two games in hand. Despite the success, the underlying numbers do not jive, and the Caps are still ranked just 25th in the power rankings. A big reason for that is that the Capitals do not fare well against quality competition, as they are just 5-15 versus the top 10 and 12-20 versus the top 16. For the record, the Leafs are ranked 10th coming into tonight.

While their recent success has put the spotlight back on the Capitals, this is a tough scheduling spot for them, as they come off a lengthy and brutal Western Conference road trip that saw them play games in Winnipeg (L, 3-0), Edmonton (L, 7-2), Seattle (W, 2-1), Vancouver (W, 2-1), and then back to Alberta to play Calgary (W, 5-2) on Monday night. The Caps would pot five goals versus the Flames, but two came on the power play, and another was an empty netter, which made that score in Calgary look worse than it really was. The Caps have had just one day in between that long roadie and this game tonight, and we have to question just how much they are going to have in the tank for a Toronto team that, while banged up, is playing well but not getting the results. In a buy-low, sell-high situation, all the value in this game is on the visiting Maple Leafs.

Sherwood

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