Face-off: 1900 ET, 22/01/2022
Venue: Ball Arena
Montreal have been much improved this week but may just regret showing their hand before visiting Stanley Cup favourites Colorado.
Most punters will have felt only complacency could have stopped the Avalanche from prevailing here, but that should not now be an issue.
We’re taking 3.9 for a home win by exactly three goals to kick off our Colorado Avalanche vs Montreal Canadiens predictions.
Colorado Avalanche Odds
Colorado made it 10 wins out of 11 since the turn of the year when obliging 4-1 at Los Angeles on Thursday.
Mikko Rantanen, Kiefer Sherwood, Nicolas Aube-Kubel and Devon Toews netted against the Kings, while Darcy Kuemper made 40 saves.
“I thought we did a good job, obviously, of doing what we had to do to defend,” Kuemper said.
“We’re used to having the puck for long stretches of time and that wasn’t really the case tonight.
“But we found a way to win in a different style and that’s really important.”
The Avalanche had claimed shutouts in two of their previous three games and are a really tight united at the moment.
Looking at the NHL odds, let’s go with a home win in regular time and Montreal to score under two goals at 2.55.
Montreal Canadiens Odds
Montreal ended a six-match winless run when landing a 5-3 upset at Dallas and then only went down 4-3 in overtime at Vegas.
The Canadiens will be without number one netminder Jake Allen for up to two months due to injury but have found an able deputy in Sam Montembeault.
The 25-year-old made a career-high 49 saves versus the Golden Knights to at least earn his side a point.
Teammate Ben Chiarot stated: “He’s young, trying to prove himself in the League, and he’s had some incredible performances for us. He looks like a seasoned vet in the net.”
Tyler Toffoli has done well since returning from injury and Nick Suzuki continues to be in fine form.
However, Colorado are expected to control proceedings for long periods at Ball Arena and Montreal may find it difficult to make an impact here.
The Avalanche won 4-1 when these teams met in Canada last month and 10.5 for a repeat of that scoreline completes our NHL predictions.
Additional stats
Last result:
Los Angeles 1-4 COLORADO
Vegas 4-3 MONTREAL (OT)
Head-to-head: Montreal 1-4 Colorado
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