Montreal Canadiens vs. Ottawa Senators Prediction, NHL Odds
Riding a three-game win streak, the Sens are still five points back of a playoff spot with 19 games left on their schedule. Outside of the division leading Sabres, the Sens have strung together the most wins in the league. Montreal will be playing the second half of a back-to-back on Wednesday in search of three straight wins of their own.
The NHL Odds have the Senators listed as the -160 favourite at home, with the OVER/UNDER set at 6.5 goals. Puck drop from Canadian Tire Centre is set for 7:30 pm EST.
Canadiens vs. Senators NHL Betting Odds
Wednesday night’s game will wrap up this four-game series, with the Canadiens leading the series 2-1 to this point. The Habs won both of those games in overtime, while the Senators’ win came 5-2 on the road. The Canadiens have opened the scoring in all three contests, and Cole Caufield has been torching the Sens this season, collecting three goals and four assists. Add those props to your same game parlay for a +333 payout. Defenceman Jake Sanderson has led the offence versus Montreal this season with five points (2G, 3A) from the blueline for the Sens.
The OVER is 8-2 in the past 10 head-to-heads, and each team has won five times.
After a stretch of five straight games that played the OVER, Montreal had a much more tame outing on Tuesday night, in their 3-1 win over the Maple Leafs. Montreal has scored three or more goals in 12 straight matchups, bumping its season average to 3.54 goals per game, good for third in the league. Through 63 games, the Habs have hit the OVER 39 times, which is amongst the most in the league.
Ottawa’s offence is also sitting in the top 10 in the NHL, ranking ninth, scoring at a 3.35 goals per game pace. They have played the OVER a ton this year as well, hitting on it in 36 of their 63 games. The Sens are riding a seven-game point streak at the moment, adapting their game plan to pick up precious points. Their defence has been huge over the streak, holding opponents to two goals or fewer in five of those seven.
Montreal Canadiens
The Habs took care of a hopeless Leafs squad on Tuesday night, taking them down 3-1 at the Bell Centre, before hopping on the bus and heading to Ottawa for Wednesday night’s matchup.
Montreal came flying out of the gate, which saw Oliver Kapanen convert for his 20th goal of the season, off a beautiful passing play from linemates Alex Newhook and Ivan Demidov. Phillip Danault (fifth) would add another before the end of the first to pick them up 2-0 at the break. Toronto would have some push in the second period and brought the game back within one, but Jake Evans (10th) would seal the game late in the third into the empty net for the 3-1 Habs win.
The Canadiens held the Leafs to just seven shots in the first and second period combined, but Jakub Dobes was sharp in goal when called upon.
Playing back-to-back nights has been more common this season, and the Canadiens have already done it 11 times. The youth in the roster definitely helps them out in these scenarios, as they are an impressive 6-3-2 in the second half of a back-to-back this season.
Ottawa Senators
A long five-game road trip with four stops in the Pacific Division went pretty well for the Senators, as they return home 4-0-1, suffering their only loss in overtime to the Edmonton Oilers. They finished off the trip with an impressive 2-0 win in Vancouver. The game was a bit of a snoozefest, as the Canucks only managed to throw 16 shots on goal, giving James Reimer an easy shutout. Ridley Greig (10th) scored for the Sens at the midway point of the game, while Brady Tkachuk (17th) iced the game with an empty netter.
With the shutout, Reimer became only the third goalie in NHL history to record a shutout with seven different franchises. The 37-year-old was signed in mid-January to finish out the season with Ottawa and has played decently, sporting the team’s best goals against average, while going 4-3-1.
Defenceman Jake Sanderson suffered an injury on Saturday and missed the game in Vancouver, and is considered to be out week-to-week. With about five weeks left in the regular season, this has to be concerning for the Senators, who are chasing the wildcard spot. Sanderson is their highest-scoring defenceman and leads the team in time on ice.
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