Hey there! For those who bear in mind playing content material on Deadspin from years in the past, it was most likely me who penned it. I’m again!
And maybe apropos, I come to you with an exciting Sharks-Canadiens encounter from this prolonged Thursday hockey slate. We want one thing to maintain us busy till baseball season commences, am I proper?
Let’s analyze what I like about this whole.
Effectively, for starters, we’ll possible have Sam Montembeault minding the web for Montreal. In years previous, the 28-year-old goaltender wouldn’t elicit such a optimistic response from Canadiens followers and bettors alike, however instances have modified this season.
Montembeault is having the perfect season of his life. The two.90 goals-against common he presently holds would decisively be the perfect such mark he’s ever posted if it ends there at season’s finish, whereas the .899 save proportion he wields is true round the perfect mark of his profession (.903 final yr).
Moreover, Montembeault already has extra wins (20) than he’s ever had in a single marketing campaign. Not solely that, he’s tied for the second-most shutouts within the NHL with 4 — together with one in his most up-to-date outing two days in the past towards Carolina.
Montembeault clearly is feeling good proper now, and we’ll hope his glorious play because the 4 Nations Face-Off break continues into this one.
Serving to our trigger would be the matchup, because the Sharks have scored fewer targets this yr (151) than all however two golf equipment within the league. Oh, and so they’re ranked useless final within the standings with a mere 38 factors. Bleh.
As for San Jose’s goaltending state of affairs, properly, it’s not fairly both. Alexander Georgiev was as soon as a really promising teen within the New York Rangers group and carried out properly there for years because the backup. Since that tenure, nevertheless, he’s been largely inconsistent.
The truth is, he’s been underachieving a lot that he was shipped midseason from Colorado to San Jose solely a few months in the past for one more goalie. One way or the other, Georgiev has been even worse in his new digs in comparison with the Avalanche, evidenced by the ugly 3.94 GAA he’s strung collectively in his 15 video games (14 begins) with the Sharks.
As of press time, it isn’t recognized who can be in web for the NHL’s cellar dwellers. Maybe it’ll be the just lately returned-from-injury Vitek Vanecek, who’s coming off a sensational effort in his personal proper when he nearly beat the NHL’s greatest crew.
That efficiency got here on Monday night, when Vanecek stopped 33 of 35 photographs in Winnipeg. He even had a shutout going late within the third, however sadly, the Jets knotted it 1-1 on a objective with 26 seconds left earlier than successful in time beyond regulation.
Perhaps Vanecek will get rewarded with one other begin. And why not? The Sharks don’t know who their goalie of the long run is. Vanecek not less than is making a greater declare for the beginning job than Georgiev is.
Montreal has a pair of proficient playmakers on its first line with Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki. Even when they do provide some injury, I’ve confidence Montembeault will craft his common stable work from home to assist tempo a lower-scoring affair.
Montembeault has performed significantly higher this season on the Bell Centre than on the highway, and within the course of, the Canadiens have produced a 17-12-1 file for the below of their 30 house video games.
Choose: UNDER 6 (-110, BetMGM)
NHL Betting Document*: 31-19-3, +7.77 models
Over/Unders: 18-13-3
Goalie Props: 13-6
Every wager graded as if it had been to win one unit
Observe me @MattZylbert on Twitter/X for doubtlessly one other choose(s) added on there.
