Montreal Canadiens vs Tampa Bay Lightning Prediction: Injuries Matter

Prediction for the NHL Montreal Canadiens vs Tampa Bay Lightning match which will take place on March 22th. Who will turn out to be stronger? Check the team conditions! Several betting options are available. 

Montreal continues to experience colossal personnel problems, reflected in the team's results. There are still almost two full-fledged fives and the leading goalkeeper in the Canadiens hospital, and therefore the coaching staff has to attract more and more young hockey players who need to gain experience in the NHL. For this reason, it is unsurprising that the Canadiens have suffered nine defeats in the last ten meetings, beating only Pittsburgh – 6:4. Despite such weak results, Montreal is in 15th place.

Tampa Bay gives out another featureless regular season. Still, John Cooper's team is dramatically transformed in the playoffs, demonstrating hockey of an entirely different level. Even now, the Lightning is already playing very well, gradually training for the start of cup battles. At the beginning of March, they lost five games in a row, but in the next eight meetings, they got five wins with three losses. It is still enough to be on the sixth line in the Eastern Conference standings while they have almost guaranteed themselves a place in the top 8.

In its current state, Montreal is a team significantly low than Tampa Bay in class. The reason for this is the significant number of injuries to the leaders of the Canadiens, which fell on them from the beginning of the regular season. For this reason, the Lightning has won in all three previous personal meetings of the current season, each time with a difference of at least two goals. Now the Canadian team has completely given up playing for the result, which is why they lost in nine of the last ten games, and now the chances of success for the wards of Martin San Louis are close to zero.

Montreal does not pretend to solve big problems this season, but for a long time, the Canadiens at least tried to get the points, paying attention to defense. They stopped doing it in the second half of March, so now they enjoy hockey, forgetting about building a defense. In total, they scored 44 goals in the last four matches, with the participation of the Canadiens (11.00 on average per game).