NHL Hockey Betting: Montreal Canadiens at Washington Capitals
Truth be told, the Montreal Canadiens didn’t play that badly last time out. They held a very talented Nashville Predators team to one goal but couldn’t solve Pekka Rinne and ended up losing in a shootout. Overall, the Habs are starting to ‘tread water’ after being in freefall for much of 2016. They’re 4-5-1 in their last ten games which is an incremental improvement if nothing else. They’ve been getting better play in net from Mike Condon and Ben Scrivens–Condon will get the start here. But those are just small ‘positives’ from a nightmare season in Montreal. The injury toll continues to mount and it’s looking less and less likely that Carey Price will be returning anytime this season.
On top of everything, Montreal faces the toughest challenge in the league tonight as they play the juggernaut Washington Capitals on the road. We could devote several pages to all of the things that the Caps have done this year but most impressive is the way they’re demolishing the rest of the NHL in the standings. They lead their division by 18 points over the second place New York Rangers and sit atop the Eastern Conference with a 17 point advantage over the Atlantic Division’s best team, the Florida Panthers. They’re even starting to leave the entire Western Conference in the dust and now hold a 10 point advantage over the Dallas Stars for the President’s Trophy.
In theory, this is the type of game where experienced hockey betting enthusiasts look for the superior team to lack focus. Unfortunately for the Canadiens, the Capitals just haven’t lost focus for a significant length of time this season. That’s why they’ve only got 10 regulation losses this season. You’ll frequently see good teams underperform when stepping down in class but not Washington–the Caps are 23-7 against opponents with losing records this year. Washington is the most dangerous of opponents–a vastly superior team in great form with enough of an advantage in the standings that they can afford to ‘play loose’.
In a game where we’d much rather make a case for the underdog we just can’t find a way to do so. We’ll lay the price with the best team in hockey.
BET WASHINGTON CAPITALS -220 OVER MONTREAL CANADIENS
