Canadiens vs Wild Prediction, Pick & Odds

• The Wild are a -128 home moneyline favorite over the Canadiens on Monday, Feb. 2nd
• Minnesota has won nine of their last ten meetings against Montreal
• See my Canadiens vs Wild predictions below, plus prop pick and lineups

The puck drops Monday in a battle between two squads that are currently in contention for the Stanley Cup odds, between the Canadiens and Wild. MTL is +5000, while MIN is +2000 to lift Lord Stanley.

Montreal (31-17-7, 32-23 ATS, 69 pts) squares off against Minnesota (32-14-10, 29-27 ATS, 74 pts), with the Habs in third place of the Atlantic, and the home squad sitting second in the Central Division.

Action is set to get underway at 7:30 pm ET / 4:30 pm PT from Grand Casino Arena in Saint Paul, Minnesota, with ESPN+ and Amazon Prime providing the coverage.

Canadiens vs Wild Prediction

My Canadiens vs Wild prediction has there being a Wild amount (sorry, couldn’t resist the pun) of goals being scored. Montreal ranks fourth in goals per outing, and Minny is twelfth. In five of the Canadiens’ last eight duels and remarkably ten of eleven battles for Minnesota, at least seven combined goals have occurred.

Per the NHL odds, it’s extremely close in the betting odds between the Canadiens vs Wild, with our SBD formula predicting a 3.67-3.43 MIN victory. That points to the over 6.5 goals total that I’m projecting.

The Wild have dominated this series, taking nine of the last ten versus their counterparts. However, on January 20th, Montreal finally got off the schneid and skated away with a 4-3 triumph. It’s been eleven straight losses for the Habs in Minny, and initially, I was set to tout another W, but that recent loss to the Canadiens gives me a bit of pause.

The goaltending matchup will feature Jakub Dobes (MTL) and Filip Gustavsson (MIN). The former has won six straight starts, allowing two or three markers in the last five outings. The latter had a strong latest affair, surrendering just one goal to Calgary, but in his previous six skirmishes, Gustavsson had given up three or four goals each time.

MTL vs MIN Season Stats/Ranks

It’s been a tale of two teams for Montreal, as they’ve scored a lot of goals and been firing on all cylinders on the man advantage, but have struggled keeping the puck out of their net. That led them to fire goaltending coach Eric Raymond less than a week ago, and replaced him with Marco Marciano. Minny has been solid all around, except the PK has been a thorn in their side on the campaign.

Canadiens vs Wild Props Pick

For a prop bet, I’m going to select Habs forward Juraj Slafkovsky to tickle the twine, as he’s second in team goal scoring with 21 goals (Cole Caufield has most). The 2022 first overall pick has found the back of the net in each of the last two contests, and has 14 goals in the last two months (compared to seven his first two months). At +250, you’re getting Slafkovsky at longer odds than the top-five players on the board.

If you want to parlay over 6.5 goals being scored, plus Slafkovsky to snipe, that total pays out a cool +380.

Canadiens vs Wild Odds

The Wild are -128 moneyline favorites and are laying 1.5 goals on the puck line at +184. The Canadiens come back as +106 underdogs, while the total currently sits at 6.5 goals at FanDuel.

The implied win probability of MIN at -128 is 56.1%. You’d need to wager $128 on the favorites to win $100, while a $100 bet on the underdogs clears $106.

Updated odds via FanDuel Sportsbook as of 1:45 p.m. ET on Feb. 2.

Canadiens vs Wild Projected Lineups

Montreal Projected Lineup

Forwards

Cole Caufield – Nick Suzuki – Kirby Dach

Juraj Slafkovsky – Oliver Kapanen – Ivan Demidov

Joe Veleno – Jake Evans – Zack Bolduc

Josh Anderson – Phillip Danault – Brendan Gallagher

Defense

Lane Hutson – Noah Dobson

Mike Matheson – Kaiden Guhle

Arber Xhekaj – Alexandre Carrier

Goaltenders

Jakub Dobes

Samuel Montembeault

Injuries: Patrik Laine (core muscle), Alex Newhook (ankle), Alexandre Texier (lower body)

Minnesota Projected Lineup

Forwards

Kirill Kaprizov – Ryan Hartman – Mats Zuccarello

Marcus Johansson – Joel Eriksson Ek – Matt Boldy

Vinnie Hinostroza – Danila Yurov – Vladimir Tarasenko

Marcus Foligno – Nico Sturm – Yakov Trenin

Defense

Quinn Hughes – Brock Faber

Jacob Middleton – Jared Spurgeon

Daemon Hunt – Zach Bogosian

Goaltenders

Filip Gustavsson

Jesper Wallstedt

Injuries: Jonas Brodin (lower body)