Face-off: 1930 ET, 27/04/2022
Arena: Madison Square Garden
New York Rangers are coming off a couple of defeats and will be keen to boost morale by beating Montreal with the playoffs fast approaching.
The Canadiens are ideal opponents to regain some confidence against, as they visit Madison Square Garden on a nine-match losing stretch.
Let’s kick off our New York Rangers vs Montreal Canadiens predictions by taking 4.0 for a home win by exactly three goals.
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New York Rangers Odds
Gerard Gallant won’t exactly be pressing any panic buttons after going down 3-1 at Boston and then losing 4-3 to Carolina at this venue.
The Rangers had previously rattled off four straight victories and seven wins in eight to wrap up a top-two finish in the Metropolitan Division.
There was a slim chance of snatching first place from the Avalanche, but last night’s narrow defeat ended that quest.
Chris Kreider scored his 52nd goal of the season but a late rally fell just short.
He stated: “It’s a tough pill to swallow. We’re a competitive group. We wanted to win that game.”
Forwards Artemi Panarin and Andrew Copp picked up knocks, so may not be risked here, but Kreider will be fired up once again.
He needs two more goals to equal Jaromir Jagr’s franchise record for a single season, so 8.0 for him to strike first appeals from the NHL odds.
Montreal Canadiens Odds
Montreal’s miserable run of results continued with a 5-3 home loss to Boston on Sunday, but that was a plucky effort.
Josh Anderson, Mike Hoffman and Nick Suzuki netted as the Canadiens battled back from 2-0 and 4-1 behind to only trail by one until conceding with seven seconds remaining.
The Habs were playing in their first home game since club legend Guy Lafleur died at the age of 70 on Friday and paid tribute to him by saluting his retired jersey at the end.
Suzuki said: “We did everything we could to get the win, we just came up short.
“You could tell in that third period we were doing everything possible to score and get the win for him.
“So, just to give him a salute up in the rafters, very special.”
To be fair, Montreal have never looked like throwing in the towel during their tough stretch and they did push the Rangers close in two early-season encounters.
Christian Dvorak had a goal and two assists in those matches, so 2.1 for him to pick up at least one point here is added to our NHL predictions.
Additional stats
Last result:
NEW YORK RANGERS 3-4 Carolina
Boston 5-3 MONTREAL
Season head-to-head: NY Rangers 3-2 Montreal, Montreal 1-3 NY Rangers
