NHL Hockey Free Pick: Montreal Canadiens vs. San Jose Sharks
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Team records:
Montreal: 30-28-6
San Jose: 40-14-9
Tonight, 10:35 p.m. ET
Sportsbook odds: Canadiens +190, Sharks -230
The Montreal Canadiens visit the San Jose Sharks on Thursday night as part of another busy night on the NHL schedule. The Canadiens are clinging to seventh place in the Eastern Conference thanks to a huge 4-1 win over their arch rival Boston Bruins on Tuesday night while the San Jose Sharks sit in a first place tie with Chicago in the Western Conference standings.
The Montreal Canadiens have been the picture of consistency all year. They have hovered around the .500 mark for the majority of the season and can’t seem to break this trend. A three game winning streak always seems to be followed by a three game losing streak and vice versa.
The Canadiens clearly have a missing element or two on their team and yet they were idle on Trade Deadline day Wednesday. Although a few of their injured starters have returned to action (Benoit Pouliot and Andrei Kostitsyn), the biggest missing piece of their puzzle (Mike Cammalleri) is still figured to miss a couple of more weeks.
The Canadiens offense was weak without Cammalleri, but has really been exposed since his injury. Tomas Plekanek, Scott Gomez and to some degree Brian Gionta have picked up the slack of late, but not enough to do enough damage against a potent team like the San Jose Sharks. Jaroslav Halak has been stellar so far this season, and his play in the Olympics for Team Slovakia cemented his position as the Habs #1 goaltender. He has demonstrated that he is capable of stealing a game or two but don’t expect robbery against the high flying Sharks.
The San Jose Shark currently sit second overall in the NHL and are a team that had five players in action during the epic Gold Medal Game of the Olympic Hockey tournament. The line of Joe Thornton, Dany Heatley and Patrick Marleau was arguably one of the best lines in the tournament, dominating every time that they were on the ice. Defenseman Dan Boyle was a standout for Team Canada and Center Joe Pavelski was effective for Team USA. All of these players have had a few days and have one game under their belts since the Olympics. They should be over their Olympic hangover and be ready to wreak havoc on the NHL once again. 
San Jose is an incredible 21-8-2 on home ice while the Canadiens are a .500 team on the road. The Canadiens have the second best Power Play in the NHL while San Jose has the third best. I like San Jose with their superb home record and third ranked penalty kill to prevail against a team that can only seem to score with the man advantage.
NHL Betting Trends:
Montreal is 2-4 SU in its last 6 games on the road
The total has gone OVER in 5 of San Jose’s last 5 games at home
The total has gone UNDER in 4 of San Jose’s last 5 games
The total has gone OVER in 4 of San Jose’s last 5 games when playing Montreal
The total has gone OVER in 4 of Montreal’s last 5 games when playing San Jose
The total has gone OVER in 6 of Montreal’s last 8 games when playing on the road against San Jose
The total has gone UNDER in 5 of Montreal’s last 7 games on the road
San Jose is 4-1 SU in its last 5 games when playing at home against Montreal
Pick: San Jose Sharks -230
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