Philadelphia Flyers vs. Toronto Maple Leafs Prediction, Preview, Picks & Odds - 4/19/2022

Time: 7 p.m. ET

Venue: Scotiabank Arena, Toronto, ON

Where to watch: TSN4, NBC Sports Philadelphia

DraftKings: Leafs -475, Flyers +350

BetMGM: Leafs -450, Flyers +340

Caesars: Leafs -435, Flyers +340

Flyers: 23-42-11

Maple Leafs: 50-20-6

It’s the battle of streaks between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Philadelphia Flyers at Scotiabank Arena on Tuesday, and I’ll give you one guess as to which team should easily extend its winning streak. One guess: Not the folks in orange and black that have been underwhelming as can be this season.

The Maple Leafs are trying to clinch home-ice advantage for the first round of the playoffs, and can put another step toward that goal if they handle business as expected against one of the worst teams in the league.

Toronto holds a six-point lead on the Tampa Bay Lightning for second place in the Atlantic, once again closing in on a potential first-round matchup between the Leafs and Lightning, and the hockey gods are likely going to give us such a ridiculous thing to look forward to.

"We've put in a lot of work this season, over the summer, and it's nice to see some results, but in the end that's not the big result that we want," Leafs forward William Nylander said after he had a goal and an assist in their 4-2 win over the New York Islanders on Sunday.

All eyes, however, are on Auston Matthews as he approaches 60 goals. But the Toronto superstar is day-to-day because of a minor injury and did not play against New York. The good news is the Maple Leafs have not needed to rely on Matthews to get them to this point, as they are 5-1-0 this season without their superstar.

"It's hard to replace an Auston, I don't know if you can," goalie Jack Campbell said after his 27-save effort against New York. "No disrespect to anybody else, but he does so many world-class things. He just means so much to our dressing room, on the ice and off the ice. But man, what a great opportunity it was for everybody to step up without him tonight, and I thought everybody battled super hard and got a big win."

Fortunately for the Leafs, facing the Flyers should be an easy task. The season that culminated at the trade deadline with moving captain Claude Giroux to the Florida Panthers is nearing its end in what’s been a major disappointment.

The Flyers are coming off a 5-3 home loss to the Buffalo Sabres, who relied on Victor Olofsson and Tage Thompson to score twice and had three players record three assists. The Flyers would likely kill for that kind of production.

"At different points, I'd say it's a matter of execution," Flyers coach Mike Yeo said. "At different points, it's a matter of puck support. But the ability to advance the puck, to get the puck out of our zone and to get onto the attack, too many times that turned into chances against or goals against here tonight."

It’s likely that Felix Sandstrom and Martin Jones will split the net the rest of the way with Carter Hart likely done for the year due to injury. That’s just begging for teams to put a bunch of pucks in their net. Fantasy players beware.

Don’t expect much to change in the sense of Toronto playing with more urgency to lock up home-ice advantage. The Flyers are just hoping to get through the rest of this season with no problem (injuries, drama, etc.) and the Maple Leafs will feast on that lackluster defense and goaltending. Maple Leafs win 5-1

Flyers are 10-35 during the second half of the season.

Flyers are 7-22 this season when revenging a loss against a team that scored four or more goals the previous meeting.

Maple Leafs are 21-5 this season after winning four of their last five.

Flyers:

James van Riemsdyk -- Kevin Hayes -- Owen Tippett

Oskar Lindblom -- Scott Laughton -- Travis Konecny

Joel Farabee -- Morgan Frost -- Bobby Brink

Noah Cates -- Nate Thompson -- Zack MacEwen

Ivan Provorov -- Egor Zamula

Travis Sanheim -- Kevin Connauton

Keith Yandle -- Ronnie Attard

Martin Jones

Maple Leafs:

Michael Bunting -- Auston Matthews -- Mitchell Marner

Ilya Mikheyev -- John Tavares -- Alexander Kerfoot

William Nylander -- David Kampf -- Pierre Engvall

Kyle Clifford -- Colin Blackwell -- Jason Spezza

Morgan Rielly -- Ilya Lyubushkin

Mark Giordano -- Timothy Liljegren

Justin Holl -- TJ Brodie

Jack Campbell

Points: Cam Atkinson -- 50

Goals: Cam Atkinson -- 23

Assists: Travis Konecny -- 33

Goalie: Carter Hart -- 13-24-7, 3.16 GAA, .905 SV%

Points: Auston Matthews -- 102

Goals: Auston Matthews -- 58

Assists: Mitchell Marner -- 60

Goalie: Jack Campbell -- 29-9-5, 2.71 GAA, .912 SV%