NHL Hockey Betting: Montreal Canadiens at Buffalo Sabres
The Montreal Canadiens are three regulation victories away from tying the best start to a season in NHL history. They have a pair of ‘winnable’ games that can get them to 9-0-0 before it gets tougher against the Vancouver Canucks as the Habs embark on a West Coast road trip. Next up, the Buffalo Sabres tonight and a home game against Toronto on Saturday. The Sabres have shown some promise in their first year under head coach Dan Bylsma as has their top rookie choice Jack Eichel. Buffalo is coming off a hard fought 2-1 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs and would love to derail the Canadiens’ shot at history.
If the record is a big deal to Montreal they’re not letting on. More than likely, it’s not–this is a veteran bunch playing for a franchise that knows wins in May are the ones that count. The Canadiens are thinking Stanley Cup, not meaningless NHL early season superlative. Buffalo’s job is somewhat easier as they’re not having to face the best goalie on the planet, aka Carey Price. All Price has done this year is allow a mere 6 goals in 6 starts for a tidy 1.00 goals against average. He already has two shutouts on the year, most recently a 3-0 manhandling of the St. Louis Blues. But Price gets tonight off in favor of backup Mike Condon, who was solid in his only start of the season so far allowing only a single goal.
With or without Price in the lineup, the Habs are a handful. And the Sabres certainly don’t match them in net where Chad Johnson has played decent though not All Star level hockey. Johnson is 2-4-0 in his six starts with a 2.35 goals against average and a .906 save percentage. A bigger problem is on offense where the team hasn’t been scoring goals. Their 11 goals in six games is tied for second worst in the league ahead of only flatlining Anaheim’s 6 goals in 6 games. This isn’t a good spot to turn around their offensive performance even against the Habs’ backup goalie. At some point the Canadiens will lose but this isn’t a spot that we see that happening.
BET MONTREAL CANADIENS -155 OVER BUFFALO SABRES
