NHL Hockey Betting: St. Louis Blues at Montreal Canadiens
One of the most compelling matchups of the season so far will take place tonight at the Bell Centre in Montreal as the hometown Canadiens put their undefeated record on the line against the St. Louis Blues. Montreal has not only picked up where they let off from last season but they look even better. This is particularly true on the offensive end where they’ve scored 20 goals in their first six games. That doesn’t exactly make them an offensive juggernaut but compared to the sputtering offense of last season it’s a marked improvement. The important numbers are in the W/L standings and there the Habs show a perfect 6-0 with 20 goals scored and 7 goals against. When your defense is allowing only 1.16 goals per game it gives you a lot of margin of error on the offensive end.
St. Louis has very quietly gotten off to an exceptional start this season. They enter this contest with a record of 5-1, their only loss a 3-2 setback at Minnesota. Making the Blues’ fast start all the more impressive is the fact that they’ve only played one game at home to this point. That was opening night meaning that this is their sixth straight road game. This is typically a daunting challenge for any team but St. Louis is 4-1 on the swing through Minnesota and Western Canada. Now they wrap up their trip in Quebec and will get a few days off before facing the New York Islanders at home on Saturday night.
At first glance, St. Louis looks like a very live underdog and are definitely a quality team at a +135 price. That said, we’re backing the Habs in this one. The final game of a long road trip is always a tough spot and ironically the Blues’ success makes it harder–at 4-1 they’ve already guaranteed themselves a winning trip no matter what happens in this game. To the fans, it is a big game against a tough team but to the team it’s a non-conference game. In most situations, we look to the Western Conference team in these matchups and the Canadiens are just 27-29 in non conference matchups in recent years. But until Habs’ goaltender Carey Price shows any weakness whatsoever we can’t fade him.
BET MONTREAL CANADIENS -145 OVER ST. LOUIS BLUES
