Ottawa Senators vs. Montreal Canadiens Prediction, NHL Odds
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Edgar Chaput
This marks the third of four scheduled meetings between the regional neighbours and, obviously, the second in four nights. It is, however, the first encounter in Montreal this season.
Ottawa is marked as -1.5 favourites on the NHL odds whereas the over-under is pinned at 6.5.
Senators vs. Canadiens NHL Betting Odds
We’ll get to the details of Saturday night’s debacle in the sections below. The result itself has given the Ontario-based unit a 2-0 season series lead, meaning the best Montreal can hope for is to split it by winning the two dates scheduled at home, starting Tuesday night.
The victory over their Quebec rivals improved the Senators’ win streak to three. It doesn’t sound like much, but anyone paying attention surely noticed that the group is playing very solid hockey at the moment. Suddenly, they’re scoring a lot a conceding very few goals. The brilliant weekend (they defeated Toronto on Friday) also handed them two consecutive spread covers, thus putting the memories of six straight failures in the rear-view mirror.
Following a four-game sequence in early January that awarded the spoils when taking the Habs against the puck line, Martin St. Louis’ ensemble has flipped-flopped results as of late. They covered twice and failed to three times in the last five opportunities. They’re current win-loss string is the opposite of Ottawa’s as they’ve kneeled before their opponents thrice. The team has only scored eight goals in its last four, only emphasizing the dearth of offence plaguing this season’s edition.
Ottawa Senators
One way to feel confident when heading into an opposing team’s den is to have spanked them 5-0 in the previous match. Ottawa’s bewitching ways against Montreal when playing at home continued Saturday night, emphatically so.
After weathering a mild first-period storm during which the visitors pressed for the opening goal, the Senators proved their worth for the next two stanzas. It would be Claude Giroux’s night. He assisted on Alex DeBrincat’s (16th) two-on-one slick wrist shot in the second period before netting a brace of his own (18th and 19th). The second was slightly lucky given that it was a pass in the slot that ricocheted off a Montreal defenceman’s skate. The cherry on top was Derick Brassard’s semi-breakaway snipe to make in 5-0 in the dying minutes…after Montreal had conceded an empty netter and put Sam Montembeault back in net.
Montreal Canadiens
The glass is either half empty or half full. For those positive-minded hockey fans, Montreal has a new opportunity to apply the lessons they should have learned from the defeat over the weekend.
In Montreal’s defence, they did push as mightily as they could in the opening frame. One might even argue they were the better side than the hosts. The Habs certainly came to the dance with the intent of playing a physical game as they out-hit their rivals 42-25 on the night. Montreal forwards didn’t lack scoring opportunities. The buildup of play and forechecking were rather good, all things considered. Sens goalie Anton Forsberg was brilliant, however. Truthfully speaking, Montreal was already a low-scoring unit prior to Cole Caufield’s season-ending injury, meaning they basically have Nick Suzuki and precious few other options. Saturday was but a snippet of what the remainder of the season could be like.
