Montreal Canadiens vs Florida Panthers Prediction: the Canadians Are Hopeless Outsiders

Prediction for the NHL Montreal Canadiens vs Florida Panthers match which will take place on March 31st. Who will turn out to be stronger? Check the team conditions! Several betting options are available 

Montreal shows awful results in the second consecutive season. Martin St. Louis would be able to make progress in his second year, but globally everything has stayed the same. The reason is numerous injuries to leading players, which could form a couple of fives that would strengthen the lineup. Without them, the Canadiens still finished the regular season well, winning their last five games with three wins and two losses. Montreal is in 15th place in the Eastern Conference standings.

Florida has experienced an impressive regression over the past year. If the Southerners won the President's Trophy by a considerable margin a year earlier, they risk not getting into the playoffs. The change of the head coach did not show positive changes, but the Panthers continued to fight for cup eight. Fortunately, opponents continue to fail. Paul Maurice's team is also in bad shape, having won only once over Toronto in the last five meetings – 3:2, and they lost four times in regular time. Florida is ninth in the Eastern Conference standings, one point behind eighth.

In the last regular season, Montreal and Florida met each other at the very end, when the Canadiens sensationally defeated the leader of the Eastern Conference – 10:2. After that, the opponents met three more times, and the Panthers won all three games with a total pucks difference of 22:9. And now the Southerners are the favorites since they need points. If the Canadians are hopeless outsiders of the league, then Paul Maurice's wards are near the cup eight, and therefore two points are important for them.

The confrontation between Montreal and Florida in recent years has been incredibly competitive. In seven previous personal games, the opponents scored 68 goals against each other (9.71 on average per game), which is a high result.