NHL Hockey Betting: Nashville Predators at Montreal Canadiens
The Montreal Canadiens are having a miserable season. Everyone knows this by now. It’s very likely going to get worse as they’ve got a brutal series of games on the horizon starting tonight when the Nashville Predators come to town. With the exception of a home game against Toronto on 2/27/16 this is what is on the horizon for the Habs–tonight’s game against Nashville followed by road games at Washington, San Jose, Anaheim and Los Angeles. For Nashville, every point is important–it’s been something of a tough season for Nashville as well. They’re still a very good hockey team but they’ve been finding ways to lose the games they won last year. They’ve got 11 OT losses this season which is one more than they had all of last year. Currently, they’re trying to hold on to the West’s final wild card playoff spot with surging Minnesota just one point behind.
One thing Nashville does have is something that Montreal desperately lacks at this stage–solid goaltending. Pekka Rinne has been uncharacteristically erratic this season but ‘pound for pound’ he’s one of the best in hockey. He’ll get the start tonight against Montreal’s Mike Condon. Another place that Nashville has struggled this season is in non-conference games–they’re just 12-13 this season after a strong performance last year. They should get some help from the Canadiens who have been downright miserable against the Western Conference this season with a record of 5-14.
As noted above, every point matters for Nashville and this road trip is a great chance for them to pick up a few. They’ve got a game against a beatable Montreal team followed by a trip to Toronto for another ‘winnable’ game. The roadtrip concludes at Chicago in a not so easy game followed by home dates against St. Louis and Dallas. We don’t see this veteran Predators team leaving four ‘easy points’ on the table during their two road games in Canada. This series has been very evenly matched head to head but in the only action so far this year the Habs were eviscerated at the Bridgestone Arena 5-1 on 12/21/15.
BET NASHVILLE PREDATORS -125 OVER MONTREAL CANADIENS
