Brendan Gallagher, Max Domi, and the Montreal Canadiens will do battle against Ryan Suter, Jared Spurgeon, and the Minnesota Wild at the Xcel Energy Center in an East-West matchup. Fox Sports North will air the game, which gets going at 5 p.m. ET on Sunday, October 20.
Montreal Canadiens at Minnesota Wild Odds
Montreal is 4-4 straight up (SU) and has lost 1.9 units for moneyline bettors thus far. That early-season SU winning percentage is a drop-off from the 44-38 record that the team posted during the 2018-19 season campaign. Through eight regular season matches, Four of its games have gone over the total, while two have gone under and one has pushed. The Habs are 2-2 SU on the road in 2019-20.
The Canadiens have found the net on 25.8 percent of their power play opportunities thus far. That’s a nice improvement from last year, when they were ranked 30th in the NHL by scoring on 13.3 percent of their extra-man opportunities. Their penalty kill has fallen off noticeably year-over-year, however, as they’ve gone from successfully defending 80.9 percent of opponents’ power plays (ranked 11th overall last season) to 73.1 percent this year..
With a .912 save percentage and 28.0 saves per game, Carey Price (4-3-1) has been the top option in goal for Montreal this season. Price played yesterday, however, so head coach Claude Julien may opt to rest him and turn to Keith Kinkaid instead (0-1-1 record, .872 save percentage, 4.93 goals against average).
On the other side of the ice, Minnesota is 1-6 straight up (SU) and has already lost 5.3 units for moneyline bettors this year. Through seven regular season matches, three of its games have gone over the total, while two have gone under and two have pushed.
The Wild have killed off a remarkable 77.8 percent of all penalties, a few points lower than the 81.7 percent they posted a year ago (when they were ranked eighth in the NHL). They’ve scored on 12.0 percent of their power plays this year after converting on 20.3 percent (ranked 13th in league) last season.
The winless Devan Dubnyk (26.0 saves per game) has been the top netminder in goal for the Wild. Dubnyk has zero wins and five losses to his name and has recorded a fairly-weak .867 save percentage and 4.44 goals against average this season.
Montreal Canadiens vs. Minnesota Wild Free Picks
Free Prediction: SU Winner – Wild, O/U – Over
Betting Trends
- The Wild are 0-2 SU when they serve more penalty minutes than their opponent while the Canadiens are 1-1 SU in games where they spend more time in the box than the opposition.
- After winning all three of their shootouts last year, Montreal is off to a 1-1 start in shootouts this season. Minnesota was 1-4 in shootouts last year and has yet to participate in one this time around.
