Montreal Canadiens vs. Edmonton Oilers Prediction, NHL Odds
The Oilers are priced as -300 favourites on the NHL odds and a total of 6.5 goals.
Canadiens vs. Oilers NHL Betting Odds
Montreal’s five-game winning streak has vaulted it right back in the middle of the Eastern Conference Wild-Card race along with Columbus, Detroit, the NY Rangers, Ottawa, Boston, Philadelphia and even the NY Islanders. The Canadiens are still +700 longshots to make the playoffs, however, with no at -1100.
Edmonton will return to the postseason and is battling Vegas for the Pacific Division title. It’s still hard to fathom that the Oilers haven’t won a division title since 1987, and they are +195 second-favourites to do so behind the Golden Knights (-135). It should be quite a final month or so of the regular season, and a reminder that the NHL trade deadline is Friday afternoon.
The Canadiens try for the season sweep as they were 3-0 upset home winners over the Oilers on Nov. 18. Sam Montembeault was brilliant with 30 saves, and the easy choice as the No. 1 star. Brendan Gallagher, Kaiden Guhle and Jake Evans had the goals. Calvin Pickard was in net for Edmonton.
The Oilers have still won six of the past 10 in the series. The under has hit in three straight after the over did in seven consecutive.
Montreal Canadiens
Montreal completed a home-and-home sweep of Buffalo with a 4-3 OT home victory on Monday for its season-high fifth straight win after not previously winning more than three in a row. The Habs blew a three-goal lead Monday, but Mike Matheson’s fifth goal of the season at 1:21 of OT won it. Cole Caufield (30th of season), Nick Suzuki (19th) and Juraj Slafkovsky (11th) had first-period goals – Caufield and Slafkovsky on the power play and Suzuki shorthanded. It was the sixth time this season the Canadiens had a power-play and shorthanded goal in the same game, tied for the second-most in the league.
Caufield became the third-fastest Canadiens player to reach the 30-goal mark in the past 30 years, doing so in 61 games played. The red-hot Suzuki also had three assists to become only the fourth Montreal player in the past decade with multiple four-point outings in a single season. Suzuki now has 14 career OT points, tied with Johnny Gagnon for sixth most in franchise history. With two assists, rookie blueliner Lane Hutson became the fastest Hab (63 games) to register 50 career points. Sam Montembeault has started four games of this five-game run and likely is in there again Thursday. The over is 6-3 in Montreal’s past nine games.
Edmonton Oilers
On Tuesday, Edmonton played its first home game since Feb. 7 but its struggles continued with a shockingly one-sided 6-2 loss to an average Anaheim squad – goaltending has been a major issue in a streak where the Oilers have lost six of seven. Calvin Pickard allowed four first-period goals on 11 shots vs. the Ducks before being replaced to start the second by Stuart Skinner. He was much better and should get the call Thursday. But Skinner hasn’t been much better when starting of late with his last win Feb. 4 in St. Louis.
Leon Draisaitl (45th of season) and Connor McDavid (23rd) had power-play goals in the loss. It was Draisaitl’s 392nd career goal to tie Mark Messier for the fourth most in franchise history. Draisaitl also had an assist and is on a 12-game points streak. Ahead of the game, Edmonton acquired forward Trent Frederic and a few other minor pieces from Boston in a trade, but Frederic is week-to-week as he was moved to injured reserve by the Bruins on Tuesday. The over is 4-1 in Edmonton’s past five Thursday games.
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