Montreal Canadiens vs. Boston Bruins Prediction, Preview, and Odds
“Sam played tremendous,” Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said. “I think everybody played well. I can’t think of a guy that wasn’t that good tonight. So when you have everybody on board, we’re hard to play against.
“I liked our game. It was fun because we played against the same team as the last game. We had a lot of examples and you can really show the aspects to work on and how we want to show up against them and the things that we want to do.”
Surprisingly, this is just the second meeting of the season for the Habs against Boston. Boston defeated the Canadiens in Montreal in the first meeting. Montreal comes in ranked 27th in goals per game this season. The Canadiens are also 16th in shooting percentage. On the power-play, the Canadiens are a dismal 29th in the league. On the defensive end, Montreal is 29th in goals allowed this season. They have struggled on the penalty kill as well, ranking just 30th in the NHL.
Key Injuries: D Jordan Harris, RW Jesse Ylonen and RW Joel Armia are listed as day-to-day.
No House Advantage: Bet on player over/unders VS THE HOUSE to 21x your bet OR play in PICK 'EM contests against other people! Click here to get a 1st deposit match up to $100 1st w/ promocode WandW!The Boston Bruins are off and running again after suffering the team's first two-game losing streak at the start of a five-game road trip. Boston won the final three games of the trip and returned home on Tuesday night to take down the Ottawa Senators 2-1. Vezina Trophy-favorite Linus Ullmark stopped 40-of-41 shots and Jake DeBrusk scored the go-ahead goal in the second period to keep the Bruins' hopes for an NHL record in wins and points in a single season on track. David Krejci scored a power-play goal in the first period as well for Boston. The win was Ullmark's 35th of the season, improving to 35-5-1 with a 1.95 GAA.“I thought he was outstanding and he needed to be," Boston coach Jim Montgomery said of Ullmark. “Unfortunately we gave up a lot of good looks, a lot of odd-man rushes because of our puck management and he bailed us out like he has all year.”
Boston will likely turn to Jeremy Swayman in the net on Thursday night. Swayman comes in off of a back-to-back shutouts. The Bruins are first in the NHL in goals against average with the best goalie tandem in the league. The Bruins are also first in the league in penalty kills. Offensively, the Bruins are second in the NHL in goals per game. They are also third in shooting percentage in the league. On the power-play, Boston is 11th in the league.
Key Injuries: D Derek Forbort and LW Nick Foligno are out and both are expected back for the playoffs.
Best Bets for this Game
Insiders Status:
Boston has dominated the NHL this season and has also dominated the Canadiens in recent years. In the last ten games, the Bruins are 8-1-1 against the Canadiens. This season, in the only meeting between the two teams thus far, the Bruins picked up a 4-2 win in Montreal. The Bruins are now 15-3 SU in the last 18 games. At home, Boston has almost been unbeatable, going 28-3-3. Montreal is just 13-20-3 on the road this season. Boston's high-powered offense should have a field day with the Canadiens and the league's 29th-ranked goals-against average. Boston will dominate this game on the man advantage as well with Montreal 30th in the league in penalty-killing. The Bruins will also feature red-hot Swayman in the net against the anemic Canadiens' offense.
Take Boston with the puck line.
Prediction: Boston -1.5
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Insiders Status:
The Bruins bring the second-highest-scoring offense against the NHL's 30th-ranked defense in this matchup. Boston has gone over the total in four of the last six games. Montreal has gone over the total in four of its last five games as well. In addition, Montreal has gone over the total in eight of the last 10 games facing an Eastern Conference opponent. I expect the Bruins to do the heavy-lifting in the goals department in this game and it'll be enough to get this game past the total.
