With a 6-2 finish over the team’s final eight games, the Montreal Canadiens locked up the top seed in the Atlantic Division. The Canadiens will try to start their postseason off on the right foot with a win at home over the New York Rangers on Wednesday night.
Rangers vs. Canadiens 2017 odds: Montreal home betting favorite in Game 1 of series
The Canadiens begin their postseason run at home on Wednesday against the Rangers as small favorites.
Jean-Yves Ahern-USA TODAY Sports
Montreal is a -155 betting favorite for Game 1 at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com. New York is going off at +125, and is hoping to continue the trend in which the road team in this series is 4-1 straight up and 5-0 against the spread.
Montreal Canadiens
The Canadiens were one of the best teams in the NHL last season before losing Carey Price to a season-ending injury, causing a collapse that left Montreal out of the postseason completely. This season, with a healthy Price playing 62 games, the Canadiens won the Atlantic with a 47-26-9 record and finished fourth in the league in goals against, allowing only 2.41 per game.
Montreal, the -125 favorite on the series prices, will try to carry its regular season success into a deep postseason run this year.
In 2014, the Canadiens were eliminated in the conference finals by the Rangers. Montreal is 2-8 SU in its last 10 postseason games against New York, per the OddsShark NHL Database.
New York Rangers
The Rangers fell to fourth place in the Metropolitan Division with a 5-6-4 run down the stretch, but getting out of that bracket as a wild card team could actually wind up being an advantage.
With Henrik Lundqvist suffering through the worst season of his professional career, the Rangers have relied more heavily on offense to win games this season, ranking fourth in the league with 3.09 goals per game. New York is 16-6 SU in its last 22 road games coming off a road loss.
Wednesday night’s total is set at five goals. The OVER is 7-0 in New York’s last seven postseason road games.
Despite being a division winner vs. wild card matchup, this series has the closest point differential of any two teams in the first round, with the Rangers finishing only one point behind Montreal on the year. This has the makings of a long series, and Game 1 is likely to set the tone early.
New York Rangers at Montreal Canadiens
When: Wednesday, 7 p.m. ET
Where: Bell Centre, Montreal, Quebec
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