00:30 Toronto Maple Leafs – Minnesota Wild

Toronto is 2-8-1 in eleven games so far in March, which is not a big surprise actually, considering the fact that important players like Korbinian Holzer (defenseman) and Olli Jokinen (center) were acquired by Anaheim Ducks and St. Louis Blues during the trade period, while Stephane Robidas (defenseman), Roman Polak (defenseman), Peter Holland (center) and Nazem Kadri (center) got injured during the month.

Motivation is another factor here: the Maple Leafs are already without chances for a place at Top 8 in the Eastern Conference, which definitely has negative effect over the players of the home team.

Minnesota, on the other hand, is on 6th position in the Western Conference (40-25-7), with five points advantage in front of the ninth team in the standings and with seven victories in the previous ten games in March (7-3-0).

In fact, more important for my bet is, that this team is without mistake in its previous eight away games, as most of those eight encounters were against teams that are currently at Top 8 in their conferences (4-2 @ Nashville ; 2-1 @ Washington ; 3-1 @ St. Louis ; 3-2 OT @ Nashville).

The Maple Leafs have won six of the previous seven games between these two teams at “Air Canada Centre” (6-1-0), but it doesn’t change the fact, that Minnesota is the team in far better form in this moment.