Ottawa Senators vs. Montreal Canadiens Prediction, NHL Odds
The surging Ottawa Senators start a three-game road trip on Saturday night with their first visit of the season to Montreal. The Canadiens are -120 favourites on the NHL odds with a total of 6.5 goals.
Senators vs. Canadiens NHL Betting Odds
Saturday is November 1, and by now in a given NHL season we generally know what teams are or will be, although injuries and trades, etc., can change things. Both Ottawa and Montreal are clearly going to be contenders in the Atlantic Division if not the Eastern Conference as a whole. The Senators and Canadiens were the East’s two Wild-Card teams last post-season and both went out in Round 1. On the current odds to win the Atlantic, Montreal is +500 and Ottawa +800.
Saturday is the first of four regular-season meetings between the clubs with Ottawa returning to Montreal on Dec. 2. The Habs don’t venture to Canadian Tire Centre for the first time until Jan. 17.
The Senators hadn’t lost four straight season series to Montreal entering last season but then lost three of four and dropped both at the Bell Centre by three goals. In fact, rather strangely, all four games were decided by exactly three goals. Christian Dvorak (2G, 5A) led Montreal with seven points in the series, while Cole Caufield and Josh Anderson led with three goals each. Sam Montembeault was in net for all four and finished with a 2.50 goals-against average and .908 SV. Michael Amadio (1G, 2A) Tim Stutzle (2G, 1A) and Drake Batherson (2G, 1A) led Ottawa with three points each. Linus Ullmark was in net for most of all four games and finished with a 4.37 GAA and .840 SV.
Ottawa is still 7-3 in the past 10 meetings, and the over-under is also 7-3.
Ottawa Senators
Ottawa won for the fourth time in five games on Thursday, 4-3 at home in a shootout over Calgary – always a good thing to start a road trip with some momentum. The Flames blew three different one-goal leads as it marked the Senators’ first time scoring three or more game-tying goals in a game since April 13, 2025, an overtime win against Philadelphia. Jake Sanderson had the tying goal with 2:49 remaining in regulation. It was his third goal of the season. Drake Batherson had an earlier assist to reach 306 career points. That’s notable as it tied future Hall of Famer Erik Karlsson for the eighth-most points by a Senators player through 400 career games. Linus Ullmark made 27 saves for his 30th career win in an Ottawa sweater, tying Craig Anderson for the third-fewest games in franchise history to reach the mark, behind only Martin Gerber (51 games) and Ray Emery (52). Ullmark will be back in there Saturday but has a 4.28 GAA in four road outings. The over is 5-0 n the Senators’ past five road games.
Montreal Canadiens
Montreal also has won four of five following a 4-3 overtime victory in Seattle on Tuesday to complete a four-game trip and then earn a few days off. Only 24 years old, Cole Caufield had the winner at 0:44 of OT and in doing set a team record with his 11th career OT goal. That total is also an NHL record for a player before age 25 as Caufield broke a tie with Sean Monahan. Caufield also had the first goal of the game and an assist and was the easy No. 1 star. He has four multi-goal games already to lead the league as of writing. Caufield will be a big part of Team USA at February’s Olympics. Nick Suzuki had three assists in the win to stretch his points streak to a career-high-tying 10 games, also the NHL’s first double-digit run this season. Jakub Dobes became the fourth different Canadiens goalie in the expansion era (since 1967-68) to begin the season with a winning streak of six or more games, but Sam Montembeault already has been confirmed for Saturday, and he’s in major danger of losing the No. 1 job if he hasn’t already at 2-3-0 with a 3.82 GAA and .842 SV. The Habs have dropped his past two, in which Montembeault has allowed 10 total goals. The over is 4-2 in Montreal’s past six.
