Montreal Canadiens vs. New York Islanders
NHL Pick: Montreal Canadiens (February 9th 2012)
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My last free play resulted in a winner with Montreal on Tuesday. Listed as home underdogs, the Canadiens “upset” Pittsburgh. That was the second straight victory for the Canadiens. Prior to that, I’d backed them in their 3-0 victory over the Jets. While the Habs are now taking to the road, I feel that they’ve got an excellent shot at making it three in a row.

We’ll be getting a great price on the Canadiens, based on the fact that this game is being played at Long Island. However, home ice isn’t necessarily an advantage for these teams.

Surprisingly, the Isles have now won three straight on the road. They’ve lost back to back home games though. In fact, they’re now one of the few teams with a record which is worse (vs. the moneyline) at home than it is on the road. The Isles are 11-16 (11-11-5) at home and 11-14 (11-11-3) on the road.

Note that the Isles did win 1-0 in a shootout on Monday, getting a great effort from their goalie. However, they were dominated in that game, getting outshot by a 45-18 margin.

Despite winning back to back home games, the Canadiens are also one of the other teams which has a better record on the road. They’re 10-15 on the road but 11-18 at home.

Monday’s win against Pittsburgh came in a shootout, which may well have been just what the doctor ordered for the Habs. That was just the Canadiens’ second win in nine shootouts and could easily help to build some positive momentum.

Goalie Carey Price, who is starting to play much better, had this to say of the win over Pittsburgh: “We blew two leads but at the end of the day I thought we kept a really positive attitude on the bench…”

Tomas Plekanec, who scored the eventual winner in the shootout, had this to say of Price: “Carey was great again tonight. He gave us a chance to stay in the game and he was great again in the shootout.”

Both teams are starting to climb in the standings. Both are fighting to get back in the playoff race. Both have “hot” goalies, entering this game. The Canadiens are 13-6 the last 19 meetings in the series though and they’ve won six of their last nine trips to Long Island. The Canadiens also played much better than the Isles on Monday. Consider Montreal. Get more NHL picks for February 9th 2012 from Ben Burns at Touthouse.com

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