Canadiens vs Hurricanes

Carolina’s top guns get this matchup at home against a Montreal team that’s closed 2025 on a 4-1-1 heater, while the Canes have stumbled to four losses in their last six and are coming off a 5-1 thud in Pittsburgh. Montreal’s surge is impressive given the bodies they’re missing — Patrik Laine, Kirby Dach, Alex Newhook, Kaiden Guhle and Jake Evans all remain out, stripping away scoring depth down the middle and a key matchup defender — but Carolina’s injury list is comparably heavy, with Jaccob Slavin and Seth Jarvis on IR, Shayne Gostisbehere banged up, and Pyotr Kochetkov done for the year, which raises the stakes on their skater depth and new goalie tandem. Even so, Brandon Bussi’s 13-1-1 start with a 2.08 GAA stabilizes the Hurricanes’ back end, and Sebastian Aho’s 24 points in 22 career games against Montreal, plus last spring’s 4-1 home win over the Habs fueled by Aho and Taylor Hall, underscore how consistently Carolina’s skill has solved this opponent in Raleigh. With both clubs sitting in playoff positions and Carolina atop the Metro, home ice and the Canes’ superior five-on-five profile still push me toward the favorite on the moneyline, but at a price of -195 the edge is more about probability than value, so I’d treat this as a medium-confidence play rather than a major investment. Odds and availability are subject to change. This bet was made at 01/01/2026 09:37

With Montreal riding a 4-1-1 run and scoring at least three goals in four of those six while allowing its share at the other end, and Carolina leaking five-plus goals in multiple recent outings during a 2-4 stretch, the current form points toward offense rather than a defensive clampdown. Season-long numbers back that up: the Canadiens sit at 3.28 goals for and 3.26 against per game, while the Hurricanes are at 3.23 for and 2.90 against, putting their combined scoring environment comfortably north of six when you blend attacking talent like Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield and Ivan Demidov with Carolina’s Aho–Svechnikov–Ehlers–Hall core. Injuries skew things toward more chances too, with Montreal missing defensive stabilizers like Guhle and key forwards such as Dach and Laine, and Carolina down top-pair rock Slavin plus Jarvis and likely Gostisbehere, thinning both blue lines in front of Bussi and a rotating Habs crease. Given the playoff-race urgency for both in crowded divisions and Aho’s long history of carving up Montreal, a 4-3 type script feels more common than a tightly buttoned 3-2 game, so at a flat 6 with -110 juice on each side I lean to the Over, accepting the possibility of a push if scoring stalls late. Odds and availability are subject to change. This bet was made at 01/01/2026 09:37

The streak profiles and injuries make Canadiens +1.5 an intriguing way to fade a full Carolina blowout, even while respecting the Canes’ edge straight up: Montreal has points in five of six (4-1-1) with several tight wins and comeback efforts, whereas Carolina’s 2-4 skid has featured only a couple of multi-goal victories and a worrying 5-1 loss in Pittsburgh. The Habs are badly shorthanded — Laine, Dach, Newhook, Guhle and Evans are all sidelined — yet their top-end core of Suzuki, Caufield and rookie standout Demidov has kept them competitive on this trip, and their overall goal differential is essentially break-even despite the injuries, suggesting they’re often within one late. On the other side, the Hurricanes are also missing impact pieces in Slavin and Jarvis, with Gostisbehere and Kochetkov reinforcing the sense that this is no longer an airtight defensive machine, even if Bussi has been excellent; Aho’s strong career production versus Montreal and Carolina’s home-ice advantage remain real, but recent head-to-head history shows the last meeting finished 4-1 with empty-net risk rather than a wire-to-wire rout. With both teams solidly in the playoff picture and the Habs hungry to prove they belong in the East’s upper tier, grabbing Montreal at +1.5 for -155 looks like a reasonable way to ride their competitiveness and recent form, though the price keeps it in “solid but not premium” territory. Odds and availability are subject to change. This bet was made at 01/01/2026 09:37