{"id":318512,"date":"2025-01-02T10:20:22","date_gmt":"2025-01-02T15:20:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cms.northstargaming.ca\/admin\/nsgcms\/?p=318512"},"modified":"2025-01-02T10:20:22","modified_gmt":"2025-01-02T15:20:22","slug":"maple-leafs-picks-vs-islanders-january-2-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms.northstargaming.ca\/admin\/nsgcms\/maple-leafs-picks-vs-islanders-january-2-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Maple Leafs picks vs. Islanders Jan. 2: Back Toronto to win, Matthew Knies to find stat sheet"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Toronto Maple Leafs and New York Islanders battle on Long Island on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The pregame narrative:<\/strong> Toronto beat New York, 3-1, in a New Year&#8217;s Eve matinee two days ago. Auston Matthews remains sidelined, but I expect the Buds to pick up another win and Matthew Knies to record a point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Check out my Maple Leafs picks vs. Islanders for Jan. 2. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Maple Leafs picks vs. Islanders<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"insights\"><strong>Go to full <a href=\"https:\/\/www.northstarbets.ca\/sportsbook\/sports-hub\/ice_hockey\/nhl\">NHL betting markets<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"cacheembed:104917\">Embed: #104917<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Best Bet: Maple Leafs moneyline (-108)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Toronto enters the new year atop the Atlantic Division with a 23-13-2 record.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Leafs have dropped three of their last five games, but their overall body of work is encouraging. And while Matthews&#8217; mystery injury is concerning, the squad hasn&#8217;t missed a beat with him sidelined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Toronto is 9-5-0 without its captain this season.<br><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Leafs are 44-24-2 without Matthews since he entered the league. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Strong goaltending and gritty, defensive play has been a big part of why the Leafs are succeeding without the reigning Rocket Richard winner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Joseph Woll is having a breakout year, ranking 10th in goals-against average (2.48) and 11th in save percentage (.913).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He turned away 30 of 31 shots against the Isles on Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>New York isn&#8217;t a team that can pour it on offensively, either. The Isles are 14-17-7, scoring the seventh-fewest goals per game (2.63).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Combine that with underwhelming goaltending and I think the Leafs should win comfortably.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Key stat:<\/strong> New York allowed the seventh-most goals per game (3.62) in December.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Quick picks<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Knies to record a point (-103):<\/strong> Knies is on a four-game pointless drought but he&#8217;s still getting plenty of opportunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The winger skates on Toronto&#8217;s second line alongside David Kampf and William Nylander. The latter leads the Maple Leafs in goals (23) and is second in points (43). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Knies is also playing on the first power-play unit, which will goes up against an awful Islanders penalty kill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>New York is killing a league-worst 63.9% of its penalties. That&#8217;s 5.7% lower than the Detroit Red Wings, who rank 31st.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Knies recorded a point against the Isles on Dec. 21 and had a team-high five shots on goal when they met on New Year&#8217;s Eve. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>NHL picks made at 10:21 a.m. ET on 01\/02\/25.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Toronto Maple Leafs and New York Islanders battle on Long Island on Thursday. The pregame narrative: Toronto beat New York, 3-1, in a New Year&#8217;s Eve matinee two days ago. Auston Matthews remains sidelined, but I expect the Buds to pick up another win and Matthew Knies to record a point. Check out my [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":318574,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sidebar_plugin_meta_block_field":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[49],"class_list":["post-318512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nhl","tag-nhl"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Maple Leafs picks vs. Islanders Jan. 2: Predictions &amp; odds | NSB<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Check out our Maple Leafs picks vs. Islanders for Jan. 2. 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