Check out a top prediction and pick for tonight’s Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Florida Panthers matchup as part of the Tuesday NHL slate.

The NHL schedule on Tuesday is an absolute heater with quality matchups throughout the entire evening. A rematch of one of last year’s playoff series brings some high-octane hockey to the rink as a floundering Toronto Maple Leafs group trying to save its season duels the Florida Panthers, the two-time champs in a similar situation at the bottom of the Atlantic Division.

Here’s a Maple Leafs vs. Panthers prediction and pick on DraftKings Sportsbook for Tuesday’s contest.

Maple Leafs vs. Panthers prediction, preview

Toronto Maple Leafs

The Leafs are a perennial playoff contender, but in the first year without Mitch Marner in nearly a decade, the situation has already become dire. Toronto has just 25 points at 11-11-3 and has a 3-5-2 record across its last 10 games. The core at the top remains similar to last season’s team with William Nylander’s 32 points pacing the lineup followed by John Tavares (28) and Matthew Knies (26), all of whom are positives in +/-. However, Auston Matthews has just 17 points in his 20 games, though he’s still a +9, so his regression is worth taking note of to this point. A pair of defensemen also have 20 points apiece with Morgan Rielly and Oliver Ekman-Larsson. The Maple Leafs can score plenty with 3.40 GF/GP, good for fifth in the league. However, they’re dismal on defense with 3.56 GA/GP, good for fourth-worst of any team. While the penalty kill is respectable at 80.8%, the power play clearly misses Marner at a paltry 15.9%, another bottom-seven mark.

Florida Panthers

The Panthers are in a similar position with 25 points, though they’ve managed one more win than Toronto with two fewer overtime trips. The franchise lost a couple of its own stars to injury, so it’s understandable to see the struggle without Matthew Tkachuk and Aleksander Barkov in the lineup through the opening months. However, Eetu Luostarinen remains out for the moment as well, another key loss. Florida’s points leader is Brad Marchand with 27, followed by Sam Reinhart with 23, Anton Lundell with 19 and Carter Vergaeghe with 16. The depth here is notable though with another seven skaters in the double-figures. The Panthers are 13th in GF/GP with 3.08, but a traditionally strong blue line has faltered to 19th with 3.17 GA/GP. On special teams, they’re 15th with a PP% of 19.3% as well as 24th in PK% at 78.5%. While the dominance seen in recent seasons has faded at least temporarily, a physically imposing style of hockey has not — Florida still falls third in total hits this season.

Maple Leafs vs. Panthers pick, best bet

DraftKings Sportsbook lists the Panthers as -155 favorites on the Moneyline tonight, while the Maple Leafs come in at +130. The total sits at 6.5 combined goals.

At this point, 72% of straight bets fall in Florida’s favor while 52% of bets favor the total’s over. Toronto’s just 3-7-0 on the road this season, but the Panthers bring an 8-5-1 record at home when playing in Sunrise.

Between the pipes, Joseph Woll draws the start for the Maple Leafs with a 2.80 GAA and .919 SV% across his six starts on the campaign. In the opposite net is Sergei Bobrovsky, who’s mustered a 2.88 GAA and .882 SV%, the latter of which would be a career-low mark if it continues throughout the remainder of the year.

It’s rather tough to pick the Leafs to win anything given their recent form of inconsistent efforts, but it does seem the team found some positive momentum with a 7-2 blowout win over the Penguins this past weekend. Coming off a standout victory like that one might just be enough to carry it into tonight against a rival, and there’s surely a chip on the shoulders of Toronto’s skaters after falling short in the postseason to the Ice Cats again last year. While the wins haven’t come, the offense isn’t bad by any means and has a handful of high-end talents in the top six. The Maple Leafs also have the benefit of the better goalie (this season), though the sample size on Woll remains small. It’ll be a tough fight against a physical team, but since Toronto ranks fifth in hits as well, this is a team equipped to match the intensity Florida plays with.

The Panthers have more consistent returns from the depth, but a lack of stars at the top keeps the team from accessing the ceiling we’ve seen in recent years. I expect the Maple Leafs to get a much-needed win here on the road as the underdog.

Best Bet: TOR Maple Leafs ML (+130)