Florida Panthers (42-14-6) vs. Montreal Canadiens (17-36-10)
March 24, 2022 7:00 pm EDT
The Line: Montreal Canadiens +235 / Florida Panthers -303; Over/Under: -6.5
(Get latest betting odds)
The Florida Panthers and the Montreal Canadiens meet in NHL action from the Bell Centre on Thursday night.
The Florida Panthers will look to find some consistency after alternating wins and losses in each of their last five games following a 3-0 win over the Anaheim Ducks last time out. Jonathan Huberdeau leads the Panthers in scoring with 86 points including a team-high 65 assists while Aaron Ekblad has 57 points with 15 goals and 42 assists as well as a team-high +38 plus/minus rating this season. Sam Reinhart has 60 points, logging 23 goals and 37 assists. Aleksander Barkov has a team-high 26 goals as well for Florida this season. Sergei Bobrovsky’s gone 30-6-3 with a 2.57 GAA and a .917 save percentage between the pipes for Florida while Spencer Knight is 12-7-3 with a 2.88 GAA and an .906 save percentage this season.
The Montreal Canadiens will look to bounce back from a 3-2 OT loss to Boston last time out. Nick Suzuki leads the Habs in scoring with 46 points including 17 goals and 29 assists and Josh Anderson’s posted 15 goals this season. Jake Allen has seen the majority of the action in goal for Montreal, going 6-16-4 with a 3.09 GAA and a .905 save percentage this season white Sam Montembault has gone 7-13-5 with a 3.71 GAA and an .894 save percentage and Cayden Primeau is 1-7-1 with a 4.88 GAA and an .866 save percentage this season.
Florida is 5-0 in their last 5 division games and 6-0 in their last 6 games playing on 3 or more day’s rest while the over is 12-3-1 in their last 16 games after allowing 2 goals or less in their previous games. Montreal is 1-8 in their last 9 games against a team with a winning percentage above .600 and 2-9 in their last 11 games playing on 2 day’s rest while the under is 3-0-1 in their last 4 division games.
I get the case to be made for Montreal as a home dog, but the fact is here that the Canadiens are back to not providing much value and while the Panthers aren’t as effective on the road as they are at home, the bottom line here is that the Panthers are the better team chasing a division title. I just don’t see the Habs matching Florida’s offensive power here and I think the Panthers take care of business on the -1.5 puck line here.
