NHL Hockey Betting: New Jersey Devils at Montreal Canadiens

So far so good for the Montreal Canadiens in their second stint without starting goalie Carey Price this season. The Habs beat the New Jersey Devils in Newark last night with Mike Condon between the pipes. They’ll try to win the rematch today as the teams move to the Bell Centre in Montreal for Saturday’s contest. Montreal is now the top team in the NHL with 38 points, 2 more than the Western Conference leading Dallas Stars and four more than the New York Rangers (who have already lost to Philadelphia earlier today). Montreal has won 4 straight, are 7-2-1 in their last ten games and have a 9-2-1 record both at home and on the road.

New Jersey is something of a surprise team this year in that they’re better than everyone thought. Of course that’s not very hard when people don’t think much of your team to begin with. The Devils are treading water at 11-9-2 and are currently two points out of the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. Last season all they had going for them was the goaltending of Cory Schnieder but this year they’re getting some decent play throughout the lineup. This is not a team built to score goals but with everyone playing to the best of their ability the Devils are by no means an ‘easy out’.

Note that Dustin Tokarski will get the start for Montreal tonight. Last season’s backup has been playing at St. John’s of the AHL this season but has been called up to provide relief for Condon during Price’s absence. Tokarski would love to get his #2 goalie spot back meaning that he’s got to take advantage of playing time when he can get it. Montreal has dominated head to head play with the Devils over the past few years–they’re 5-2-0 in the last 7 meetings including 2-1-0 at home. New Jersey isn’t a bad team and they’re not a side to take lightly. Typically, you look to play on the team that lost the first game in these ‘quick rematch’ situations but the disparity in talent is just too much. Montreal doesn’t play again until Tuesday night (home against Columbus) so they’ll have plenty of focus here.

BET MONTREAL CANADIENS -145 OVER NEW JERSEY DEVILS