Florida Panthers vs. Montreal Canadiens: NHL Odds, Prediction
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Ryan Stetson.
The Florida Panthers have their work cut out for them to make the playoffs. They’re five points out of the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference and do have games in hand on other squads battling for spots, but they’ll need to pick up a lot of points on the road. Florida is the visitor in seven of its next eight games, beginning tonight in Montreal. The Canadiens are just playing out the schedule at this point and have dropped seven of their last eight games.
Panthers vs. Canadiens Betting Analysis
You hate money if you’re still betting on the Montreal Canadiens to cover pucklines. The Habs sit dead last in the league’s puckline standings and have cost their loyal supporters more than 21 units this season. Florida hasn’t been a good puckline bet on the road either at 13-20, but the Panthers have been very good against their Atlantic Division rivals at 12-6-1-1 outright. Florida hasn’t allowed a goal in its last two games against Montreal, downing the Habs 2-0 and 5-0
Florida Panthers
The Panthers are coming off a tough 4-2 loss to Edmonton on Saturday night and know that they’ll need to bank points against struggling teams – like the Canadiens – moving forward. The Panthers have strong scoring depth with Aleksander Barkov, Vincent Trocheck, and Jonathan Huberdeau all with at least 60 points and three more players with more than 40 points. Trocheck is the straw stirring the drink right now with four goals and five assists over a six-game points streak. The Panthers are expected to give veteran Roberto Luongo the start tonight between the pipes. He is coming off back-to-back losses, but has had a strong year despite missing a lot of time due to injury. He’s 14-9-2 with a 2.63 goals against average and a .926 save percentage.
Montreal Canadiens
Carey Price seems to be getting closer to returning to the crease for the Montreal Canadiens. He will be Antti Niemi’s backup tonight. However, you have to wonder if the Habs would be better off shutting Price down for the rest of the season. Price has missed 12 games with concussion symptoms after also battling chronic fatigue earlier this year. It’s not like he’d be coming back to a team that would give him much support. The Canadiens rank 29th in the league averaging 2.5 goals per game.
