The Montreal Canadiens hit the road on Tuesday evening to visit the Nashville Predators for a cross-conference matchup. The puck is scheduled to drop at 8 PM ET at Bridgestone Arena. Montreal is coming off back-to-back losses to the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning, both by 4-3 scorelines. The Preds meanwhile just hammered a very good Colorado Avalanche team 5-1 on Saturday, their eighth victory in a row. Needless to say, Nashville is surging at the moment. Read on for the Canadiens vs Predators picks.
Before diving into the NHL picks, check out our top hockey betting sites and the Vegas odds for the NHL in the 2023-24 season.
The Preds are favored at -208 odds on Tuesday for an implied win probability of 67.53%. The Habs return at +184 and have a 35.21% of taking this contest. The total is set at six goals. When it comes to recent meetings, Nashville has won three of the last four against Montreal. This is their second matchup of the 2023-24 season.
The Habs are once against struggling this season, sitting in second-last place in the always competitive Atlantic Division. Montreal has a 23-28-10 record and have gone just 2-6-2 in their last 10 games. They will be looking to end a two-game losing skid on Tuesday. In fairness though, the Canadiens showed well down in Florida against the Panthers and Lightning, only losing by a goal in both contests via a shootout. They fought hard.
But, Montreal did blow a two-goal lead on Saturday in Tampa, scoring twice in the first period before the Bolts tied it up in the second. Both teams scored once more each in the third and after an uneventful overtime, it went to a shootout where Cole Caufield was the only one to score. This game was honestly just an example of how the Habs’ season is going. They rank towards the bottom of the league in goals scored and goals allowed, scoring only 2.77 per night while conceding 3.49.
Nick Suzuki is their best player, scoring 24 and supplying 35 assists for a total of 59 points. Caufield is also enjoying an impressive campaign, tallying 48 points. But outside of those two and perhaps Mike Matheson, the production is rather limited on this roster as you can see by their record. There’s just not a lot of consistency in any area. The Habs own an 11-12-7 record on the road.
The Preds will likely be in the playoffs next month. They’re fourth in the Central Division with a 35-25-2 record, sitting five points ahead of the St. Louis Blues, who are in fifth. It’s very important that Nashville keeps them at bay because at this moment in time, the Predators occupy the final playoff berth in this division.
This team is absolutely on fire right now, going unbeaten in eight games. During that span, they’ve beaten some quality teams like the Avalanche, Blues, Golden Knights, and Wild. The victory over Colorado on Saturday was definitely a confidence booster. After a quiet two periods where the Preds took a 2-1 lead into the third, they broke it wide open, scoring three times. Cody Glass led the way with his first career hat-trick. Ryan O’Reilly and Tommy Novak also got on the scoresheet.
Nashville is around the middle of the pack in most categories, but there’s a solid group of guys who produce on a nightly basis. Filip Forsberg is the main man with 29 goals and 33 assists, while Roman Josi also has 61 points. Gustav Nyquist, Ryan O’Reilly, Tommy Novak, and Colton Sissons are all sitting over the 30-point mark, too. The Predators are 17-15-0 at home this year and will hit the road later this week.
You’d be a fool to not bet on the Preds when they’re playing so well. I’ll ride Nashville to keep the winning ways going on Tuesday against a struggling Habs squad.
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