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[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Face-off: 1900 ET, 17/02/2022
Arena: Centre Bell
Montreal will look to end a dismal run of 10 straight defeats when St Louis arrive in Quebec but the omens do not look good.
The Canadiens have lost 16 of their last 17 contests and the trading away of forward Tyler Toffoli to Calgary further weakens their offensive options.
The Blues come in after a 5-2 win over Ottawa on Tuesday night and we like 5.25 for them to win by at least four clear goals in the first of our NHL predictions.
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Montreal have had a season to forget after reaching the Stanley Cup final last term.
They currently lie five points adrift of the Arizona Coyotes at the bottom of the NHL standings and have won just twice since the beginning of December.
New general manager Kent Hughes has been tasked with the job of rebuilding the team and he started that process by shipping out Toffoli in return for first and fifth round picks, plus forwards Emil Heineman and Tyler Pitlick.
Hughes revealed his focus is on the long term and does not expect a quick fix for the Habs.
He said: “Everybody wants to use a word to describe what we’re doing.
“Right now, we’re in last place in the NHL. We want to improve the team. We want to build a team that can win year after year.
“The trades we’ll make, or the ones we’ve already made, were they made so we could reach the Stanley Cup Final next year? No. We want to build a team that can win for the long-term.
“I’m not hiding anything. Reconstruction, reset, retool, it’s not necessarily that at all. I’d use more than one word to describe the objective.”
The second half of the season could be a long haul for Montreal and that can be illustrated here by a 5-1 defeat at 19.5 from the NHL odds.
St Louis come into the game on the back of two strong defensive displays.
The Blues allowed just 20 shots in the win over Ottawa and before that allowed only 16 when crushing Chicago 5-1, which is the lowest and second lowest shots allowed all season for the franchise.
They also allowed only 23 when they beat the Canadiens 4-1 at Enterprise Centre on December 11.
The line of Pavel Buchnevich, Vladimir Tarasenko and Robert Thomas shone against the Senators and each recorded three points, so head coach Craig Berube is hoping for more of the same.
Berube said: “The Thomas line was excellent. Puck possession was excellent, they were strong on it.
“They competed on the puck, they kept it and hung onto it – it’s not always open space, they had to compete for it.”
The Blues are 7-3-0 in their last 10 meetings with Montreal and there is nothing to suggest that dominance will not be continued.
Let’s finish off our Montreal Canadiens vs St Louis Blues predictions by taking 2.3 for an away win with over 5.5 total goals.
Additional stats
Last result:
MONTREAL 3-5 Buffalo
Ottawa 2-5 ST LOUIS
Head-to-head: St Louis 4-1 Montreal
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