Two struggling teams meet in San Jose on Tuesday night on NBCSN, as the Montreal Canadiens visit the San Jose Sharks. Montreal has lost four straight games, while the Sharks come into this contest at 1-3. The Canadiens have not played since losing 4-3 in overtime to Toronto on Saturday, while the Sharks are coming off a 3-1 home loss to the Islanders on Saturday. There is a huge trend to consider in this game, as the Canadiens have lost 10 straight in San Jose, with their last win coming in 1999.
At 10:30 p.m. ET, tune into NBCSN for live television coverage of this NHL game on Tuesday, October 17, 2017 at the SAP Center.
We'll have NHL odds at BookMaker.eu available for this and every game on the NHL Tuesday schedule.
Odds Analysis
The Canadiens played well on Saturday night, but they still suffered their fourth straight loss, as Toronto won 4-3 in overtime. "Today we got a point and we're heading in the right direction," said Jonathan Drouin after the game, "Scoring three goals is a really good sign offensively. We're disappointed because we would have wanted two points.” Montreal had scored a combined four goals in their first four games. Goalie Carey Price took the blame for Saturday’s loss. "It might have been our best game of the year," said Price. "Everyone played very well. Unfortunately I didn't play my best game of the year. If I would have played better, we'd be looking at this a different way." Price has a poor 3.45 goals-against average and a .885 save percentage this season.
Montreal is scoring just 1.4 goals per game, 31st in the league, while they are giving up 3.4 goals per contest, 19th in the league. They have gone over the total twice, under twice, with one push.
The Sharks are not playing any better than Montreal. Head coach Pete DeBoer said after the 3-1 loss to the Islanders on Saturday that the team is frustrated. The Sharks are 1-3 on the season, with all four games played at home. They will complete the five-game homestand on Tuesday night. “We’re used to winning, that’s the expectation and we’re not winning,” DeBoer said, “If you’re seeing frustration it’s because these guys expect to win every night.”
The Sharks are scoring two goals per game and giving up 3.5 per contest. They have gone over the total once, under twice, with one push.
Special Teams
The Canadiens have been awful on the power play, as they rank 28th in the league at just 6.2%. They are 15th in penalty killing at 81.2%. The Sharks are 4th in the league on the power play at 28.6%, while they are 13th in penalty killing at 82.4%.
Key Stat
The Sharks have won 8 of the last 10 overall in this series, including the last 10 in San Jose. Seven of the last ten meetings have gone under the total. San Jose won both meetings last season, winning 2-1 at home and 4-2 in Montreal.
Free NHL Picks
Neither team is playing well coming into this game but there are some reasons to like the home team in this contest. Montreal is beginning a three-game West Coast road trip on Tuesday and they are playing the first half of a back-to-back. The Canadiens did play better on Saturday against Toronto but they still have major goal scoring concerns and they also are not getting good goaltending from Price right now. On the other side, the Sharks badly want to wrap up this home stand with a win before heading out on the road. And as has been said many times before, you can win many times following a streak but lose just once. The Sharks have won the last ten at home against Montreal and I am not going against that streak. I will lay the small price and take San Jose to get the win.
NHL Odds: Sharks 3, Canadiens 2
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