Florida Panthers vs. Montreal Canadiens: Prediction, Preview, Picks & Odds - 1/19/2023

Time: 7 p.m. ET

Venue: Bell Centre, Montreal, QE

Where to watch: RDS, TSN2, BSFL

DraftKings: FLA -265, MTL +225

FanDuel: FLA -255, MTL +205

BetMGM: FLA -250, MTL +190

Caesars: FLA -250, MTL +205

Panthers: 21-20-5

Canadiens: 19-23-3

The Montreal Canadiens will try to go for their third straight win and 4th in five games when they host the Florida Panthers at Bell Centre on Thursday.

 

It has been a fun time for Montreal since that long losing streak from before the calendar flipped. Montreal, since losing 4-1 to the New York Rangers on January 5th, has reeled off four wins in six games with the most recent being a 4-1 victory over the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday.

 

In what was by far the best games of his season in his first in Montreal, Evgenii Dadonov scored twice in the second. To counter Winnipeg getting on the board first when Kyle Connor scored a power play goal. Mike Hoffman added a goal as well in the second period, and Josh Anderson put the finishing touches on a goal early in the third period. Kirby Dach had two assists and Sam Montembeault had 25 saves.

 

"We just beat two of the best teams in the League," said Montembeault, who made his fifth straight start. "So it just shows that when we play for 60 minutes and we play our kind of hockey that we can compete with anybody."

 

There is no doubt that the season Montreal has had has not been one that they've expected, but they have been much more competitive than I think a lot of people would give them credit for. Montreal has picked up wins over the Rangers, the Nashville Predators, and Winnipeg in the last week. Under any other circumstances, that would be a stretch where Montreal would lose almost all of those games. But this team still has a great mix of youth and veteran experience and it is a team that is going to compete for a playoff spot down the road. But there is no doubt that right now they are playing inspired hockey and they're doing it very well.

 

You would like to think that the same could be said for the Panthers but it's been an up and down season the likes of which nobody really expected from the reigning presidents trophy winners. Florida is coming off a 5-4 overtime loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs that ended their two game-winning streak, but at least the Panthers are on a 3 game pointstreak.

 

Florida jumped out to a 4-2 lead early in the second period but completely fell apart once the stars of Toronto took over. Sasha barkov scored a power play goal, and Anton Lundell added a shorthanded goal for the Panthers. Carter Verhaeghe scored nearly two minutes into the game, but Sergei Bobrovsky gave up three goals in the final two periods and ultimately lost the game.

 

"We're working our butts off now," Florida coach Paul Maurice said. "You may not be able to see it because there was a little fatigue there towards the end of the game, we didn't have that push or sharpness, but they're working hard enough to win games. When you do that, your goalie starts making more saves, everybody starts feeling better. Tough loss tonight."

 

Continues to be one of the more interesting mysteries of this season because they should be a lot better than this. They are getting the offensive production that was expected, but the defense and the goaltending have let them down in numerous instances. Case in point, losing to Toronto the way that they did the other night. The Panthers have still won five of their last eight but have played middle of the road hockey over the last 10 games. That's not going to get it done.

 

Until the Panthers figure out how they can stop the bleeding as far as giving up goals in absurd fashions, this is the perfect opportunity to take the underdog here. Montreal is a scrappy, tough team and there is no doubt that they will give the Panthers a run here. If you have any inclination of playing an underdog today, this would be it. Canadiens 5, Panthers 3

Panthers have won five of the last six meetings.

The home team is 13-3 in the last 16 meetings.

Canadiens are 0-5 in their last five against Atlantic Division teams.

Anton Lundell -- Aleksander Barkov -- Sam Reinhart

Carter Verhaeghe -- Sam Bennett -- Matthew Tkachuk

Grigori Denisenko -- Eetu Luostarinen -- Nick Cousins

Ryan Lomberg -- Eric Staal -- Givani Smith

Gustav Forsling -- Aaron Ekblad

Marc Staal -- Brandon Montour

Josh Mahura -- Radko Gudas

Sergei Bobrovsky

Cole Caufield -- Nick Suzuki -- Jonathan Drouin

Mike Hoffman -- Kirby Dach -- Josh Anderson

Evgenii Dadonov -- Christian Dvorak -- Jesse Ylonen

Michael Pezzetta -- Rem Pitlick -- Rafael Harvey-Pinard

Jordan Harris -- David Savard

Joel Edmundson -- Justin Barron

Mike Matheson -- Johnathan Kovacevic

Sam Montembeault