Face-off: 1900 ET, 23/04/2022
Arena: Canadian Tire Centre
Ottawa are 6-4-1 this month and finishing the season strongly, whereas Montreal travel to Canadian Tire Centre on a run of seven straight defeats.
The Senators must back-up after a shootout success at Columbus last night but have the youthful exuberance to recover from those exertions.
We’re happy to take 2.0 for a home win in regular time to kick off our Ottawa Senators vs Montreal Canadiens predictions.
Win up to $100 in cash with our Free to Play NHL predictions promotion!
Ottawa Senators Odds
Ottawa certainly can’t be accused of taking things easy in the closing stages of the season, with three of their last four matches going to overtime.
The Senators followed up Wednesday’s 4-3 shootout success in Vancouver by prevailing 2-1 after penalties at Columbus.
Brady Tkachuk levelled things up at 7:06 in the third period and Tim Stutzle scored the only goal when it came to sudden death.
Filip Gustavsson, who made 33 saves, admitted: “It felt like a little bit of a slow game the first two periods, like we didn’t really play our best game offensively.
“Then we did pretty good in the third period and we came out of it with the win.”
Head coach DJ Smith added: “As the game went on, I thought we got a little hungrier. It was a pretty even game both ways but we just found a way to win.”
For young starlets such as Tkachuk, Stutzle, Drake Batherson, Josh Norris and Gustavsson, these experiences are money in the bank.
We’re hoping this is a bit more straightforward, though, and 7.0 for Ottawa to win by exactly two goals appeals from the NHL odds.
Montreal Canadiens Odds
Montreal’s mood is far less upbeat after they continued to struggle down the stretch with Thursday’s 6-3 home loss to Philadelphia.
The Flyers had suffered six consecutive defeats themselves heading into that contest but were just too sharp for the Canadiens.
Forward Brendan Gallagher acknowledged: “It’s been frustrating, it’s been a tough go lately.”
Getting Michael Pezzetta back from suspension here should help but slow starts continue to plague the Habs.
After falling 2-0 behind against Philadelphia early on, Montreal are now 49-94 down in the opening stanza, conceding more times than any other team and ranking 31 for goals scored.
Let’s finish off our NHL predictions by taking 4.1 for Ottawa to lead after P1 and over 1.5 goals to be scored in that section.
Additional stats
Last result:
Columbus 1-2 OTTAWA (SO)
MONTREAL 3-6 Philadelphia
Season head-to-head: Montreal 3-6 Ottawa, Montreal 5-1 Ottawa, Ottawa 1-2 Montreal
