Montreal Canadiens vs. Edmonton Oilers Prediction, NHL Odds
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Nik Kowalski
It’s the second of five straight contests on the road for Montreal, who opened the trip with a 5-2 loss at Calgary Saturday. Edmonton’s looking to keep pace when it comes to the race for first in the Pacific Division. The Oilers are eight points back of first but have three games in hand and the 25-31-11 Habs a prime opponent for the Oilers to pounce on.
Puck drop at Rogers Place gets started at 9 p.m. EDT with the Oilers a -375 moneyline favourite at home, and -145 to cover the -1.5 puckline. The over-under is at 6.5 on the NHL odds.
Canadiens vs. Oilers NHL Betting Odds
When Montreal and Edmonton meet, goals come at ease. The over has hit in seven of the last eight Montreal–Edmonton meetings but that streak broke when these teams met for the lone time this season, a 2-1 Oilers victory on January 13. Despite being 1-7 in their last eight road games overall, Montreal has surprisingly won four of their last six visits to Edmonton.
Edmonton’s gotten at least a point in all of their three home games this month, including scoring 13 goals against two mediocre eastern opponents in Pittsburgh and Washington. Montreal’s scored over three goals just once this month.
Montreal Canadiens
The Habs are near the bottom in the NHL with 28.3 shots per game, and while it was refreshing that they put 38 pucks on net Saturday at Calgary — it still led to a similar result as Montreal fell 5-2. Prior to Saturday’s loss the Habs had a combined 42 shots in two games as a consistent source of offence continues to be a struggle.
On a positive note, with a goal Saturday Cole Caufield reached 20 goals for the third straight season. Caufield is second on the Habs in both goals (20) and points (53), the latter a career high. But regarding Montreal’s offensive woes, Caufield and Nick Suzuki are the only Montreal skaters over 15 goals this season.
Edmonton Oilers
An impressive Connor McDavid streak has come to an end after the Oilers superstar failed to record a point at home for the first time in 27 games. Leon Draisaitl was also pointless after a four-point night to open Edmonton’s current four-game home stand. McDavid and Draisaitl have been climbing the NHL’s scoring leaders, with McDavid now in third with 106 points and Draisaitl ninth with 86.
Stuart Skinner made 40 saves in Saturday’s loss and now has a .938 save percentage in five games started this month. Head coach Kris Knoblauch has balanced out Skinner’s workload with backup Calvin Pickard, but with Edmonton not having played since Saturday it’s safe to assume Skinner will again take the crease versus Montreal.
