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Edgar Chaput
Pittsburgh Penguins vs. Montreal Canadiens Prediction, NHL Odds
Pittsburgh and Montreal currently sit on 27 points. Neither side has impressed enough this season for fans to cling to serious hope that the current campaign will demonstrate much improvement. The Penguins played 24 hours ago at home to the Arizona Coyotes, whom they tamed 4-2. Wednesday is the Canadiens’ first match since Sunday evening when the Nashville Predators came to town and won 2-1.
Sidney Crosby’s Penguins are viewed as the favourites on the NHL odds, priced at -155 on the moneyline.
Penguins vs. Canadiens NHL Betting Odds
A stat perhaps few would have guessed, Montreal swept its regular season series against Pittsburgh last season, taking all three meetings. Two were claimed in overtime and two easily connected with the over given the 6-4 and 5-4 final scores. In a testament to how the mighty have fallen, the Penguins are only 3-7 against the Habs in the previous 110 meetings, dating back to their unique pandemic playoff series in the summer of 2020.
Do not be fooled by the legendary names that grace Pittsburgh’s roster like Sydney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Erik Karlsson. This is not a team that scores many goals. Seven of their last eight matches have played the under, and prior to Tuesday’s 4-2 win, the club had netted only one goal in three straight games. Conversely, the Penguins have the sixth-best GAA in the NHL, a sparkling 2.59 per tilt. ATS they’re 12-15.
Things are simple with the Canadiens. The fact that they are +1.5 underdogs almost every time means that as long as they win outright or lose by only a goal, they’ll cover. That explains the good-looking 16-12 tally despite the 12-13-3 straight-up record. Montreal has been an underdog in nine consecutive games, including tonight’s.
Pittsburgh Penguins
One hesitates to proclaim Tuesday’s 4-goal performance an “outburst”, especially when the final marker was into a gaping net, but at least for once the Penguins made good on all their chances.
It certainly isn’t for lack of trying. Pittsburgh fires the ninth-most shots on target in the NHL but has the 28th-ranked efficiency percentage (8.8). There was no shortage of scoring chances versus the Coyotes, as the hosts buried the other side’s goalie with 44 shots. A wild first period saw four goals scored, two on each side, including a sweet shorthanded score by Jeff Carter (second) on a breakaway. Jake Guentzel (11th, powerplay), the team’s points leader, also netted. Carter (third) would do his team proud again in the final frame, this time via a well-timed deflection on the power play. It was a dominant performance overall, one that paid off before an important road trip.
Montreal Canadiens
Speaking of teams that don’t score enough goals, enter the Montreal Canadiens. The Sunday night set-up was always a bad one. They had played Saturday in Buffalo and were coming home to face a hot goalie in the Nashville Predators’ Juuse Saros.
That said, the overnight travel didn’t produce slow legs or a lackadaisical effort. Montreal had 37 shots on goal, but Saros stood his ground all night except for a Jake Evans backhand shot that fooled him in the second period. Jake Allen had one of his better outings of the season, repelling 30 shots, but when a club goes through offensive struggles like Montreal (2.61 goals per match), it doesn’t matter. One player steadfast on getting on the scoresheet was stalwart Brendan Gallagher, who tallied 10 attempts on target, by far the most of any player. When he’s healthy – which he hasn’t been much for two years – he is one of the rare spark plugs on the roster.
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