New York Rangers vs. Montreal Canadiens Prediction, NHL Odds

Edgar Chaput | Updated Jan 19, 2025

NHL: Montreal Canadiens at New York Rangers

The Montreal Canadiens host a rare Sunday night game as Original Six opponents the New York Rangers visit the Bell Centre.

NY Rangers
27-24-4
AT
January 19, 2025, 7:00 PM ET
Bell Centre
Montreal
25-26-3-2
Puckline -1.5 +200
Moneyline -115
Over / Under o +6
Puckline +1.5 -250
Moneyline -105
Over / Under u +6

Amidst a whirlwind season, the New York Rangers are trying to navigate a plethora of problems to get back to the Stanley Cup playoffs. They’ve played a bit better as of late, including a 1-0 shootout win over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday, but remain on the outside looking in. In fact, even though the Montreal Canadiens lost 7-3 to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday, they have more points in the standings (48 to New York’s 47).

Our NHL odds see this one as a close close, with the Habs pegged at -105 on the moneyline and the Rangers -114.

Rangers vs. Canadiens NHL Betting Odds

The Rangers might be licking their chops at the prospect of visiting the Canadiens on Sunday. The Big Apple club has strung together four consecutive victories over its old rivals from La Belle Province. Interestingly, the last time the Canadiens earned the spoils over the Rangers was just about a year ago, in early January 2024. New York has already captured two this season.

Not only is the season in general not going according to plan for Peter Laviolette’s group, but betters can’t trust the Rangers much either. The team is only 18-27-0 versus the puckline in 2024-25. That said, with four straight-up wins out of five, maybe they’re righting the ship just in time. New York is also 6-2-2 straight-up in its last 10.

Funnily enough, the Habs have the polar opposite ATS record at 27-18-0. It helps that expectations are so low and the team has overperformed, relatively speaking. Winning games when persistently deemed an underdog goes a long way to putting a club in the good graces of sports betting number crunchers. Even considering Saturday’s bad loss, the Canadiens are a stout 7-2-1 in their 10 most recent outings.

New York Rangers

The season isn’t evolving how the Rangers presumably drew it up, but at this stage of the campaign, they’ll take points any way they can earn them. That includes incredibly narrow wins like the 1-0 shootout against the Blue Jackets at home on Saturday.

Even then, it wasn’t as if the hosts dominated the game, which is probably what would have transpired a season ago when the Rangers were Presidents’ Trophy winners. Columbus outshot New York 27-26, but Igor Shesterkin was equal to the task every time en route to a shutout. He also repelled every attempt in the shootout. On the flip side, Vincent Trochek tallied the game-winning goal. Artemi Panarin and Filip Chytil led the charge with three shots each.

Panarin, for that matter, easily leads the club in points with 47 (19 goals, 27 assists), but only has one in his last five games. Low team scoring will only add fuel to fire of the J.T. Miller (Vancouver Canucks) trade rumours.

Montreal Canadiens

It’s funny how quickly things can change over the course of an evening in the NHL. After 20 minutes of the Maple Leafs-Canadiens match on Saturday, the hosts led 3-0 and looked to mop the ice with their Ontario rivals.

The Habs were on a high, Toronto’s media and fans were once again questioning the club’s credentials, and the world made sense for Canadiens supporters. Then periods two and three transpired, during which Toronto blasted Montreal for seven goals, reminding everyone that, although the Habs are better this season, they’re not out of the woods. Sloppy defending and metal errors, which have cost the club previously this season came back to haunt them once more.

Kirby Dach, Patrik Laine (on the power play again), and Josh Anderson all netted for Montreal. But it was one of those nights when neither Cole Caufield nor Nick Suzuki came to the rescue and Samuel Montembeault was the bad version of Monty, which, to be clear, has happened a few times this season.

NHL Prediction: Who Will Win Rangers vs. Canadiens?

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