NHL Betting Picks: Toronto Maple Leafs at Montreal Canadiens

Added on Feb 24, 2011 by Jack Thurman in

NHL

Sportsbooks will be offering an ‘Original 6′ matchup between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens on Thursday’s board. This is the oldest rivalry in the NHL and even when the teams involved aren’t doing particularly well its always a hard fought battle. Part of this is due to the historic disdain between residents of Montreal and Toronto. In any case, it should be an entertaining hockey game.

Toronto Maple Leafs at Montreal Canadiens
February 24, 2011 4:35 PM Pacific

The oldest rivalry in the NHL is renewed on Thursday as the Maple Leafs play the Habs at Montreal’s Bell Centre. With 24 Stanley Cup championship banners overhead, the Canadiens’ home ice is as intimidating an environment as you’ll find in sports even though most of the titles were won at their old area, the Forum. The Leafs have been inconsistent all season but typically this rivalry is very competitive regardless of the records of the teams. The Habs have been very good defensively all season long and are currently the #9 ranked scoring defense in the NHL. Their problem has been on the other end of the ice, and they’ve struggled to score goals consistently this season as evidenced by their #26 ranking in scoring offense. Montreal has been really tough on home ice this season with a 19-7-6 record but the Leafs have been very competitive here in recent years winning 4 of the L8 meetings. Toronto has won 8 of the L16 meetings overall and have already won two of four from the Canadiens this year–both at home. Habs are in a serious slump at the moment having lost 6 of their L8 but yet they could be in something of a letdown mode as they return home after the big ‘Heritage Classic’ game at Calgary and an upset win at Vancouver. Leafs not a great team but they’ve been in marginally better form of late winning 7 of their L12. We’ll take the price with Toronto in this rivalry game and look for another close checking battle. Hopefully the Leafs can steal another win from their slumping Quebec rivals and cash a ticket for us at a nice underdog price.

Bet Toronto Maple Leafs +130 over Montreal Canadiens