{"id":27368,"date":"2010-10-05T10:38:05","date_gmt":"2010-10-05T15:38:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.capperspicks.com\/blog\/?p=27368"},"modified":"2010-10-05T10:40:19","modified_gmt":"2010-10-05T15:40:19","slug":"predictions-2010-montreal-canadiens-betting-preview-51010","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/nhl\/predictions-2010-montreal-canadiens-betting-preview-51010\/","title":{"rendered":"2010\/11 Montreal Canadiens Predictions \u2013 Odds \u2013 Season Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><strong>2010-11 NHL Predictions\/Previews: Montreal Canadiens<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>CappersPicks.com\u00a0<a href=\"\/nhl\/\"><strong>NHL Betting<\/strong><\/a> and gambling site provides the BEST Online\u00a0<a href=\"\/handicappers\/\"><strong>hockey predictions<\/strong><\/a> for you to bet on for the 2010\/11 NHL hockey season! Stick with us all season long! <!--more--><\/p>\n<p><strong>Montreal Canadiens<\/strong><br \/>\nStanley Cup odds: 25\/1<\/p>\n<p>Montreal enjoyed a fantastic postseason run in 2009-10, topping first-place Washington before taking the Pittsburgh Penguins to seven games.<\/p>\n<p>That effort may be luring fans into a false sense of security; it\u2019s easy to forget the club just barely squeaked into the postseason, finishing eighth in the Eastern Conference. Odds are Montreal will be in the same neighbourhood again.<\/p>\n<p>Goaltending is the biggest issue at hand. Jaroslav Halak and Carey Price battled for the job; Halak certainly played better, especially in the playoffs, when he was positively brilliant and practically stole the Washington series. Despite this, the Habs shipped Halak to St. Louis. Now, Price has more pressure on his shoulders than ever\u2014and we\u2019re talking about a guy who the Montreal media at one point caricatured as Jesus.<\/p>\n<p>Price certainly has the pedigree. He has great size, is a former fifth-overall draft pick, and has a wonderful amateur resume. He\u2019s never lived up to the hype, though, and it\u2019s beginning to look like he can\u2019t handle the pressure cooker that is hockey life in Montreal. This will be Price\u2019s final chance to prove he can. Behind him is journeyman Alex Auld, a serviceable back up but nothing more. <\/p>\n<p>Montreal ranked 13<sup>th<\/sup> in goals allowed last season, and the blue line should get an upgrade thanks to P.K. Subban. The youngster was brilliant in the 2010 playoffs and will contend for Rookie of the Year honors. <iframe allowtransparency='true' src='http:\/\/ff.connextra.com\/Bodog\/selector\/client?client=Bodog&#038;placement=Ext_RS_Sports_250x250&#038;cxt_aff_id=151627' class=\"alignleft\" style=\"margin: 1px; border: 3px solid #FFFFFF;\" width='250' height='250' scrolling='no' frameborder='0' style='border-width:0'><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, Subban\u2019s impact may be lessened over the first month or so as the unit moves forward without Andrei Markov. Markov underwent knee surgery in the offseason and his return is unclear. Nov. 1 has been pencilled in, though the defenseman is skating and claims to be ahead of schedule.<\/p>\n<p>Hall Gill will be expected to pick up the slack. While Gill isn\u2019t going to be in Norris Trophy contention any time soon, he\u2019s a big, rangy defender who can play a lot of minutes. That will be crucial, especially until Markov returns.<\/p>\n<p>After finishing 26<sup>th<\/sup> in scoring last year, Montreal oddly spent the offseason twiddling its thumbs. The core up front returns almost completely intact, and that\u2019s probably not a good thing\u2014few teams have gone deep into the playoffs with a group of undersized, overpaid forwards.<\/p>\n<p>Tomas Plekanec, Michael Cammalleri and Andrei Kostitsyn form the top line. Plekanec was solid with 25 goals and 70 points. Cammalleri was a bust after signing from Calgary. He missed 17 games and scored just 26 goals and 50 points\u2014a major drop off after posting 39 goals and 82 points the previous year with the Flames.<\/p>\n<p>Kostitsyn was equally disappointing. The temperamental Russian scored 49 goals during the 2007-08 and 2008-09 campaigns, but he fell off to just 15 last year. His brother, Sergei, was sent packing in the offseason, and it remains to be seen how Andrei will react.<\/p>\n<p>Ultimately, it\u2019ll be more of the same in Montreal this year; some respectable defense, not enough scoring, and questions between the pipes. If Price can rebound and deliver solid results, though, the Habs will at least contend for one of the final playoff spots in the East.<\/p>\n<h3><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bodog.ca\/welcome\/151627\/betting-offers\/capperspicks-football-deposit-bonus.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">NOTE: To all the Canadians visiting CappersPicks.com today! The Bodog.ca Sportsbook has a particular focus on Canada\u2019s most popular sports: NHL Hockey and CFL Football. CHECK THEM OUT TODAY! CLICK HERE!!<\/a><\/h3>\n<p><strong><\/strong><br \/>\n<strong><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ian Van Den Hurk weighs in with his 2010-2011 Montreal Canadiens Season Gambling Picks and NHL Preview, plus he provides the lastest NHL odds, Canadiens future lines, and Stanley Cup predictions&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":185,"featured_media":27370,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[35779,35780,35781,34010,34011,35782,34013,34014,35783,35784,35785,35786,35787,2994,2996,3080,5080,17638,895,3207,17823,1968],"class_list":["post-27368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nhl","tag-2010-canadiens","tag-2010-canadiens-predictions","tag-2010-canadiens-season-preview","tag-2010-nhl-predictions","tag-2010-nhl-stanley-cup-odds","tag-2010-2011-montreal-canadiens-season-betting-preview","tag-2010-2011-nhl-predictions","tag-201011-nhl-preview","tag-bet-on-canadiens","tag-canadiens-2010-preseason-schedule","tag-canadiens-nhl-schedule","tag-canadiens-odds","tag-canadiens-picks","tag-hockey-picks","tag-hockey-predictions","tag-hockey-wagering","tag-montreal-canadiens","tag-nhl-hockey-predictions","tag-nhl-picks","tag-nhl-predictions","tag-nhl-season-preview","tag-stanley-cup-odds"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/185"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27368"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27368\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27372,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27368\/revisions\/27372"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}