Philadelphia vs Montreal: the Flyers won't be strong enough to take on the Canadiens after facing Carolina

In another NHL game of the day, Philadelphia takes on Montreal at Wells Fargo Center. Who will be stronger in a meeting of Eastern Conference outsiders? Let's pick a few bets at once.

After two straight wins over Vegas and Chicago, Philadelphia played two straight road games against currently top teams in the Eastern Conference. And lost both times. First, the Flyers could not counter anything against Florida, 3-6. And then Carolina, 1-3. The Flyers are 14th in the East standings. Only Buffalo and Montreal are lower.

The Canadiens improved noticeably under their new coach, but they lost too much in the first half of the regular season. So even despite their recent success, the team from Montreal is still in last place in the East. The lag from the last-place Buffalo is 8 points.

• Philadelphia: Sean Couturier, Scott Laughton, Nate Thompson and Ryan Ellis will not play. Kevin Connauton is questionable;
• Montreal: Jake Allen, Christian Dvorak, David Savard, Jonathan Drouin, Tyler Pitlick, Andrew Hammond, Joel Edmundson, Carey Price, Kale Clague will not play. Cedric Paquette is questionable.

In the first game of the season series, Montreal defeated Philadelphia on home ice in a shootout, 3-2.

Montreal seems a little bit worse than usual. Ahead of the match with Philadelphia, the team lost to Vancouver and Seattle, conceding 8 pucks in two games. In the game against the Phils, however, the Canadiens have a great chance to improve. After all, the Flyers will have a back-to-back after an extremely tough game against Carolina, and they just might not have the energy to face Montreal.

Prediction: Montreal will be closer to winning.

• H2 (+0.25) for 2.01;
• W2 (incl. OT) for 2.25;
• W2 for 3.084.