The Buffalo Sabres head north of the border to take on the Montreal Canadiens at the Bell Centre on Sunday afternoon.  Note that this game starts at 12:05 PM Pacific/3:05 PM Eastern.  Montreal is playing their best hockey of the year at the moment, with six wins in their last seven games.  Oddly enough, all of that success came on the road.  Buffalo has played reasonably well all year, and is tied for 2nd in the Eastern Conference.  We’ve take a look at a NHL betting position on the total for this game:

BUFFALO SABRES VS. MONTREAL CANADIENS

Both teams have a bias to the ‘under’ this year, with the Sabres playing only 16 ‘overs’ in their first 40 games and the Habs only 19 in their first 23 games.  Montreal has gone ‘under’ in 12 of 20 games at home, while Buffalo has gone ‘under’ in 10 of 17 away games.  Buffalo has relied on Ryan Miller, who is among the league leaders in most goaltending categories and personally responsible for most of the Sabres’ ‘unders’.   Montreal has had trouble scoring this year and though they’ve demonstrated some signs of improvement in that department lately they’re still #23 in the league in goals scored per game.

Although they’ve managed to keep winning, Buffalo has shown signs that their defense may be wearing down somewhat.  They’ve started giving up a lot more shots on goal than they had earlier this season and although they still rank high in that category need to do a better job in front of Miller.  This has been a topic of discussion among the Buffalo hockey media lately and there’s a good deal of concern that it could cause trouble down the road.  They’ve been outshot in six straight games, allowing 35 or more opponent shots on goal.  Not surprisingly, they’ve only played one game ‘under’ in that span.

Buffalo and Montreal played twice in the month of December, with both games going ‘over’ the total.  With these games suggesting a style of play between the teams that produces a lot of goals and with Buffalo’s recent defensive lapses in front of Miller we’ll take the value price and play ‘over’ the total.

PLAY MONTREAL/BUFFALO OVER 5′ +120

Related posts:

1. NHL Hockey Betting Free Picks For Tuesday: Buffalo vs. Anaheim
2. NHL Betting Free Picks: Bruins vs. Sabres
3. NHL Betting Free Picks For Saturday: Shark Attack
4. NHL Betting Free Picks For Thursday: Sabres vs. Kings
5. NHL Betting Free Picks for Friday: Montreal vs. Philadelphia