Habs Take On A Bedardless Blackhawks Tonight

In fact, the Habs are continuing to deal with injury struggles of their own, as defenseman Mike Matheson will miss his 2nd straight game with an upper-body injury. The last time Matheson skated for the Canadiens was during a shift where he played over 4 minutes and 30 seconds straight to help hold a lead against the Edmonton Oilers on Sunday night. Is it possible that something happened to him where he pulled a muscle in his upper body due to his extremely lengthy shift? Given that an average NHL shift for a defenseman is a little over a minute, it seems very possible that this is the case with him, as it’s over 4 times the length of an average shift. Sure, Matheson is an endurance animal, but playing that long consecutively can easily cause a strain somewhere in the body.

Matheson’s presence was missed a lot on Tuesday, and it will likely only continue to be that way tonight. No one can play a solid 2-way game for as many minutes as he does on the team. Hutson and Dobson can play huge minutes, but they aren’t nearly as effective in their own end as Matheson, which is why defending a lead late in a game could be one of the hardest things to do with him out of the lineup.

Tonight’s starting goaltender for the Habs will be Jakub Dobes, who is coming off an amazing 27-save performance in a 4-1 victory against the Oilers on Sunday. The fact that Dobes has had 3 days in between starts means that he will be very fresh and ready to perform tonight. It’s a known thing that a rested Dobes is a dangerous weapon for opposing teams this year. Unfortunately, there were a lot of situations where he had to play too often in a short period of time, which resulted in him becoming overly fatigued. With that being said, the expectation is that Dobes has another good game, but that will remain to be seen.

Spencer Knight will be in goal for the Blackhawks tonight. Knight has been one of the best young goaltenders in the NHL this year, with a 2.55 GAA and a .914 save percentage. It will not be an easy game for the Habs to get goals against an up-and-coming young netminder, but they have been able to get by him before.

In the last matchup against the Blackhawks, the Canadiens won 3-2, thanks to a late-game Kaiden Guhle (out with an injury) winner. Not to mention, the Habs got to Knight last year in a 4-0 shutout against the Florida Panthers during Dobes’ first NHL game. With that being said, both the Habs and Dobes have the edge on Knight historically.

Given how there will be a rested Dobes playing for the Habs and a strong netminder in Knight on the other side for the Blackhawks, the Under 5.5 goals seems like a good bet tonight. On the moneyline, the Canadiens are listed as huge -175 home favourites. In reality, this may be the game in which they are favoured the most so far this season.

A good player prop that may be undervalued by the oddsmakers tonight is Alexandre Texier, who is red-hot for a 3rd-line forward that is on a 4-game point streak, which includes goals in his last 2 games. He is set as a +450 to score again tonight. If you are looking for a good value bet, a Texier goal may be the way to go.

What are your predictions for tonight’s game?