NHL Hockey Betting: Montreal Canadiens at Pittsburgh Penguins

Two games on the NHL schedule for Wednesday night and the most significant will feature the Montreal Canadiens taking their NHL best record into the Consul Energy Center to take on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Montreal picked up where they left off after their season starting win streak came to an end. The Habs have won four of five since then and are leading the NHL with 27 points. That puts them 10 points clear of Detroit and Ottawa in the Atlantic Division and 3 points up on the New York Rangers for the Eastern Conference lead.

The Penguins got off to a lousy start this season losing their first three games and prompting questions about whether or not Sidney Crosby’s ‘window’ to win another Stanley Cup might have passed. The slump proved to be short term, however, and Pittsburgh has now won 9 of their last 100 games. Pittsburgh is coming off a loss, however, dropping a verdict to the Calgary Flames in their last game.

Both teams should be well rested, having last played on Saturday night. Pittsburgh will start Marc-Andre Fleury while Montreal will go with Mike Condon as their starting netminder, Carey Price, continues to recover from a lower body injury that has kept him out of action for the past week. No problem for the Habs, however, as Condon has been spectacular. The 25 year old Massachusetts native hasn’t played like a rookie, posting a 6-0-1 record with a 1.57 goals against average and a 0.940 save percentage. Price is expected to be out for at least another week but with Condon playing so well there’s no pressure to rush him back. Assuming that Condon keeps it up, the Habs might rest Price for much of November regardless of his injury status.

Pittsburgh has gone on a nice run but a look at the statistics shows a couple of problems. They are still having trouble scoring goals and rank #26 in the NHL in goals per game (2.21) while Montreal leads the league (3.69). Pittsburgh has played well defensively–they’re the #3 defense in the NHL while Montreal is #2. Habs are just the better team and we’ll gladly take them getting ‘plus money’.

BET MONTREAL CANADIENS +120 OVER PITTSBURGH PENGUINS