Our NHL play lost on Monday as Boston got a shorthanded goal in the third period to push their game with St. Louis over the total.  Not much to work with in the NHL today, with only one game on the docket but there’s a decent totals position in that game.

COLUMBUS BLUE JACKETS VS. MONTREAL CANADIENS

The Columbus Blue Jackets will travel to the cradle of hockey civilization, Montreal, Quebec, to take on Les Habs at the Bell Centre.  Columbus lost a 7-4 decision to the New York Rangers on Monday night with an uncharacteristic bad game by goaltender Steve Mason.  For the year, the Jackets have gone over in 11 of 21 and 7 of 9 on the road but they’ve been much more stingy on defense lately which is the way they need to play to win hockey games.  The good news for our matchup here is that they’re playing the offensively challenged Montreal Canadiens.  If the Habs don’t play good defense, they don’t win.  Montreal currently ranks 27th out of the 30 NHL teams in goals per game.  They’ve suffered with some injuries, but the reality is that the team just isn’t constructed to score a lot of goals.  Carey Price is rounding into form in net and its a good thing because Montreal simply can’t beat anyone in a shootout.  The Canadiens have gone under in eight of their last twelve and four straight.

Here’s how we see this one playing out:  look for a focused defensive effort by Columbus to atone for Monday’s shoddy performance, which is fine with Montreal as this is their preferred pace.  Much of this game will be played between the blue lines as have most of the recent games in the series:  6 of the last 8 overall and 4 of the last five in Montreal have stayed under the total.

If you want a play on the side, you could do much worse than taking a shot on the Blue Jackets. They’ve won six of their last nine and are 3-1-1 in their last five trips to Montreal.  They’re a +110 underdog here so a play on Columbus isn’t a bad value. We’ll stick with the total for our ‘official’ play however and look for this game to go under.

PLAY MONTREAL/COLUMBUS UNDER 5′ -125

Related posts:

1. NHL Free Picks: Blue Jackets in the Desert
2. NHL Free Play for 11/26/09: Turkey Day Total
3. NHL Betting Free Picks for Sunday: Buffalo vs. Montreal
4. NHL Free Play for 12/10/09: Southern Fried Hockey and a review
5. NHL Free Play for 11/23/09: Blue Monday