Boston Bruins vs Montreal Canadiens Betting Line
The NHL’s top defenses battle for the lead in the Northeast Division when the Boston Bruins visit the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday night at the Bell Centre. Face off is set for 7 pm ET with Montreal favored by a goal.
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If you know anything about NHL hockey, you know these two teams do not like each other. It’s still early in the year but look for Boston to seek revenge for a November 11 3-1 loss to the Habs. Montreal controlled the play outhit and outworked the homestanding Bruins and head coach Claude Julien will not forget that game. Forward Milan Lucic leads Boston with 26 points and adds grit and grind to his play. Captain Zdeno Chara has given Montreal fits over the past two seasons leading the scoring from the blue line. Tim Thomas is having another outstanding year in net and will be tough to beat. Boston owns the toughest defense in the league and with Montreal struggling to score could hold this game to one to two goals. The power play might be the Bruins advantage as they ranks 13th in scoring with the extra skater.
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Montreal will own the home ice advantage but sometimes playing in front of the toughest hockey crowd is not a good thing for the Canadiens. Montreal is 11-4-2 at home and has dropped four of its last six to Boston in the Bell Centre. The Bruins road record of 9-3-1 is one of the league’s best. The Canadiens’ lead the NHL in penalty kill percentage and rank second in goals against. Offensively, the Habs struggle with Mike Cammalleri the leader but with only 10 goals. Tomas Plekanec is next with nine goals and 17 assists for 16 points. PJ Subban is a budding star along the blue line and is often given the task a shadowing the opponents top forward. His match-up with Lucic will be the game within the game to keep an eye on. Goaltender Carey Price has been outstanding and has a league best 1.96 goals against average.
This is a typical grudge match. Look for physical play to favor Boston and the Bruins to wear Montreal down. The Habs will be sore after a Wednesday night game against the bruising Flyers from Philadelphia and the Bruins could pull off an upset. No doubt you will see extra time in this one. The pick is Montreal in a shootout win.
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