St. Louis Blues vs. Montreal Canadiens Prediction, NHL Odds
Two teams with depleted rosters on much different trajectories will face off at the Bell Centre. The Canadiens have slid to last place in the Atlantic Division, while the Blues have won four of their past five and are only two points out of a playoff spot.
The Blues are the -163 favourite to win on the NHL odds with the total set at 6.5.
Blues vs. Canadiens NHL Betting Odds
This will be the final meeting of the season and the last chance the Blues will have at revenge after getting pounded 7-4 by the Canadiens back in October. Christian Dvorak scored his first career hat trick and Cole Caufield had three points (2G 1A) in the game, while Jordan Kyrou scored a pair of goals for St. Louis.
Last season these teams met twice, splitting the series 1-1 and playing the Under in both games. The Blues are one of two teams that have played the Over 25 times this season, tied for the most in the league. Six of their past seven have hit the Over including all of their past three games. They have covered the spread in eight of their past 10 games over a stretch where they went 6-2-2 bumping the record ATS to 19-20.
The Canadiens are 1-8-1 in their last 10 games and they have been taking some tough losses, making them 2-8 ATS in that stretch. Their last outing played the Under snapping a trend of three in a row to the Over putting their record in that column to 15-21-3. The Habs have had some real scoring trouble lately being held to two goals or less in 11 of their past 13 games.
St. Louis Blues
Missing core pieces like Vladimir Tarasenko, Ryan O’Reilly and Torey Krug, the Blues still managed to pull out a 5-3 win over the New Jersey Devils on Thursday. The win was their second in a row and their fourth in their past five. St. Louis’ leading goal scorer Jordan Kyrou (19) opened the scoring halfway through the first period before the Devils scored back-to-back to take the lead. The Blues then scored three unanswered to pull away in the third period. Robert Thomas scored his second of the game into the empty net to seal it 5-3.
Brandon Saad picked up multiple points for the second straight game and Jordan Binnington had a great performance in net making 36 saves, his second highest total of the season. The Blues are 19-17-3 with 41 points sitting sixth in a tight Central Division and will be looking to remain undefeated in 2023.
Montreal Canadiens
The Canadiens played their first game on home ice after a long seven-game road trip Thursday night versus the New York Rangers. It was not quite the homecoming Habs fans were hoping for as they lost 4-1 loss and were outshot 31-18. Jake Allen got the nod in goal, stopping 27 of the 30 shots he faced while Joel Armia scored his first goal of the season for Montreal’s lone goal of the game.
Brendan Gallagher did not play in the game and will be out for at least two weeks with a lower body injury the team announced on Friday. The 30-year-old winger scored in his return versus Nashville but then re-aggregated the injury. The team also provided an update on rookie defenceman Kaiden Guhle’s status and he will miss a minimum of eight weeks. Head coach Martin St. Louis has already named Allen the starter for Saturday night’s game in hopes of picking their first win of 2023.
