NHL Hockey Betting: Montreal Canadiens at Pittsburgh Penguins

Big game for both teams as the Atlantic Division leading Montreal Canadiens head into the ‘Steel City’ to take on the defending Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins. The Canadiens are 5-3-2 in their last ten games and have a five point lead over the Ottawa Senators atop their division. They’ve coming off a 3-2 win at Florida last time out and this will be their final game until a January 3, 2017 matchup against the Predators at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.

The Penguins are in the frustrating position of playing great hockey and it still not being enough to avoid losing ground to the top team in their division. Pittsburgh is 7-1-2 in their last ten games but have slipped into second place one point behind the ridiculously hot Columbus Blue Jackets. The Blue Jackets, of course, haven’t lost a game since November 26 for a 14 game winning streak. They’ll put that massive winning streak on the line on Saturday as they take on the Minnesota Wild who have won 12 straight games. This gives Pittsburgh an opportunity to sneak back into first place should the Jackets lose in regulation.

Pittsburgh has won 9 of their last 12 games and will get a long break after this contest, next playing on January 8 at home against the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Penguins will start Marc-Andre Fleury in net for this game–he’s back in the starting netminder role with last year’s rookie phenom Matt Murray out indefinitely with a lower body injury. He’ll be opposed by Carey Price who is back in stellar form following his ‘lost season’ in 2015-2016. The bad news for Montreal is that while Price is healthy they’ve got plenty of key players who aren’t. Alex Galchenyuk, Andrei Markov, Andrew Shaw, Andrew Shaw and Greg Pateryn are all out at least a month.

It’s just tough to go against Pittsburgh right now given their solid form and the pressure that Columbus is putting on them to keep pace. They’ll be off a full week after this game which gives them no reason not to lay it all on the line here. Montreal is a scrappy team and Price is good enough to steal any game but that being said we’ll back the Penguins.

BET PITTSBURGH PENGUINS -140 OVER MONTREAL CANADIENS