NHL Hockey Betting: San Jose Sharks at Montreal Canadiens

Great matchup on Friday night as the Pacific Division leading San Jose Sharks head to the Bell Centre to take on the Atlantic Division leading Montreal Canadiens. The Canadiens are 19-6-4 on the year but are just 5-3-2 in their last 10 games. They’ve been downright nasty at Centre Bell with a 14-1-2 home record. The Habs should be rested and ready coming off a 2-1 loss at Boston on Monday night. The Sharks have been almost unbeatable lately winning three straight and 9 of their last 12. Their last three wins came by a single goal at home against Carolina, at Ottawa and at Toronto. After this day, Montreal has a tricky scheduling stretch playing at Washington, home against Anaheim and Minnesota and then at Columbus.

The Habs will start Carey Price and he’s having a great year after a ‘lost season’ in 2015-2016. Price is 16-3-2 with a 1.80 goals against average and a 0.940 save percentage. He’ll be opposed by Martin Jones who is having a solid season but nothing in Price’s league–Jones is 15-10-1 with a 2.10 goals against average and a 0.920 save percentage. The Sharks will be waiting to get the status of Logan Couture who left the last game with an injury. he’s currently listed as ‘questionable’. Montreal has a few injuries which are to key players–particularly on offense–but so far they’ve been able to make it through. Defenseman Greg Pateryn is out for two months as are centers Alex Galchenyuk and David Desharnais.

The Canadiens have already had one spot this season where they played with 3 or more days of rest. Then again, the Sharks have momentum and that’s often able to overcome a more rested team. They’re 12-6 in non-conference games this year but just 8-8 in road games. The Sharks have dominated head to head play of late winning four of the last five games against Montreal. They’ve split two games at the Bell Centre and won here approximately a year ago on 12/15/15. They’ve also won the two games since, 2/29/16 and 12/2/16 in San Jose. Always tough to go against Carey Price and he’s capable of stoning any team in the league. That being said, we’ll take the price on the Sharks.

BET SAN JOSE SHARKS +125 OVER MONTREAL CANADIENS