The Toronto Maple Leafs (37-16-5) and the Buffalo Sabres (19-32-8) meet up on Sunday for a very special game at Tim Hortons Field as they go head to head in the sixth NHL Heritage Classic.
The two have already met once this month and Buffalo took the win 5-1. Another high-scoring game is expected on Sunday as bookmaker Bovada has the odds at -190 for over 5.5 goals and at -165 for over 6.0 goals.
※ Current Odds Date & Time: March 12th, 7:00 P.M. (EST)
The win at Toronto was a big one for the Sabres as they have endured another rough season. Things got off to a dream start when they went 5-1-1 across their first seven outings but starting netminder Craig Anderson then went down with a long-term upper-body injury and things quickly turned sour.
Anderson is back healthy again now and has just hit 300 career wins. He should feel very confident ahead of Sunday’s match-up after winning three of his last four starts.
This will be Buffalo’s third outdoor game and the team is looking for its first win. The Sabres were famously part of the first-ever Winter Classic in 2008 losing 2-1 in a shootout to Sidney Crosby and the Penguins, and they also featured in the 2018 Winter Classic suffering a 3-2 overtime loss at the hands of the New York Rangers.
They say third time’s a charm and if the Sabres want to take down the Leafs again they have to find a way to match their offense.
Toronto has scored four-plus goals in every outing since losing to the Sabres on March 2. They average the third-most goals per game (3.71) in the league and even produced a 10-goal night a couple of weeks ago against Detroit.
The whole team deserves credit for their prolific attack, but it’s Auston Matthews who mostly grabs the headlines and for good reason.
Matthews has scored a whopping seven goals over the last four games and he looks set to make a run at posting a 60-goal year. He’s already on 44 markers with 55 games played and it’s very difficult to keep him quiet.
The Maple Leafs will be playing in their fourth outdoor game. They won their first two against Detroit in 2014 and 2017 but lost their most recent outing 5-2 to Washington in 2018.
