A pair of teams from the Atlantic Division take the ice in search of a victory down in the Sunshine State. The Montreal Canadiens are on the road as they make the trip to face the Florida Panthers Thursday night. Montreal was in action Wednesday night as they faced the Lightning in Tampa Bay so this marks the second game of a back-to-back set for them. The Canadiens fell 4-2 on the road to the Stars in Dallas in their previous game Friday night. Florida was drubbed 5-1 on the road by the Islanders in their previous game Friday night. In the last 10 meetings between the teams, the Panthers have a 6-4 advantage though it was Montreal rolling to a 10-2 demolition at home in the most recent matchup on April 29, 2022.
I just won $14,619 in parlay tickets in the month of November. Don't miss out on another big payday! Click here to get a month o f my parlays for only $50 (normally $100)!
Montreal plays the second game of a back-to-back set in this contest as they played Tampa Bay Wednesday night. The Canadiens entered Wednesday tied for seventh in the Atlantic Division with a 15-16-3 record, 24 points behind the Bruins for the division lead, eight points behind Tampa Bay for the final guaranteed playoff spot and 10 points back of Washington for the second wild-card spot. Montreal stands 27th in the league in offensive production with 2.68 goals per game on the season. The Canadiens are 25th in goals against as they allow an average of 3.47 goals per contest. Montreal is 32nd in the league in power play success by cashing in 14.2% of their chances with the man advantage on the year. The Canadiens are 20th in penalty killing by successfully getting through 77.2% of their shorthanded situations this season.
In their most recent game against t he Stars, Montreal let a third-period lead slip away on the road, sending them careening to a fifth loss in their last six games. The opening period saw the Canadiens outshot by a 9-8 margin but they took a 1-0 lead to the dressing room after 20 minutes of play. Jake Evans opened the scoring with his first goal of the season, on the power play, at 4:04 of the period off assists from Michael Pezzetta and Jordan Harris. In the second period, Montreal was outshot 13-8 with both teams scoring once, leaving them up 2-1 after two periods of play. Pezzetta gave the Canadiens a 2-0 lead with his second goal of the season at 2:24 off an assist from Arber Xhekaj. Montreal allowed a goal later in the period to halve their lead. In the third period, the Canadiens were outshot 14-8 and outscored 3-0 to wind up with the loss. Jake Allen made 32 saves for Montreal, who was outshot 36-24, in the loss. It’s unclear if it will be Allen or Samuel Montembeault between the pipes for this contest.