Headline: Eastern Conference Elite Clash Saturday Night \u2013 Penguins vs. Canadiens<\/strong><\/p>\n Two of the top six teams in the NHL standings meet in Montreal Saturday night in what is the marquee matchup on a busy day of NHL action. The Canadiens have been great and have gone nine straight games earning a point (7-0-2). <\/p>\n Pittsburgh Penguins (13-8-0-0) at Montreal Canadiens (13-4-1-2)<\/strong> Matchup<\/a> | Preview<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Check out our in-house NHL Handicapper!!! Buy Razor Ray’s NHL Picks Today!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n They may just have caught Pittsburgh at precisely the right time as well \u2013 Evgeni Malkin will likely miss his fifth straight game and the Penguins have lost two straight games including a 4-1 defeat at the hands of the woeful Panthers Tuesday night.<\/p>\n The Pittsburgh Penguins really miss Evgeni Malkin \u2013 he is skating but will likely take his time getting back to the lineup. The Penguins continue to be an elite offense in the NHL predictably \u2013 an average of 3.29 goals per game so far. Sidney Crosby has picked up the slack in Makin\u2019s absence \u2013 he has two goals and four assists in his last three games and now has 31 points in 21 games this year. <\/p>\n Unreal! Others are chipping in as well – Paul Martin has three goals and six assists in his last eight games while Chris Kunitz has failed to get at least a point in only five games this season.<\/p>\n The Penguins will bring the offense that much is assured. The question is whether or not they can keep the puck out of their own net!<\/p>\n Pittsburgh is giving up an average of 2.76 goals per game this season \u2013 Marc-Andre Fleury has been a disappointment and Thomas Vokoun hasn\u2019t quite been the keeper that they expected. Marc-Andre Fleury has a career .889 save percentage and 3.25 goals against average in 24 starts against Montreal but has gone 3-0-1 record with a 2.38 goals-against average in his last four starts against the Habs.<\/p>\n The Montreal Canadians are on some kind of high \u2013 leading the Eastern Conference and playing great defense along the way. The Canadiens are allowing 2.05 goals per game. They’ve limited opponents to two goals or fewer in seven of nine during their current streak. They are coming off an emotional 5-2win at Toronto. Things are good. [soliloquy id=”82219″]<\/p>\n Max Pacioretty has six goals and four assists in his last seven games, and his center David Desharnais has a goal and six assists over the same span for the offense that hadn\u2019t been great before Wednesday\u2019s win. The Canadiens will be without Rene Bourque and Raphael Diaz due concussions but that\u2019s nothing compared to the loss of Malkin!<\/p>\n A few trends to consider:<\/p>\n \u2022 PIT are 9-2 in their last 11 Sat. games. Carey Price will likely be the story in his one. The Canadiens have been playing lockdown defense \u2013 they haven\u2019t been giving up that much at all. That coupled with Pittsburgh\u2019s defensive woes (10 goals allowed in the last two), I like the Canadiens to carry on the momentum gained in the last game against Toronto. Montreal? Leading the East? You gotta be kidding me!<\/p>\n Pick<\/strong>: Montreal Canadiens -120<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Penguins vs Canadiens NHL Spread\/Handicapping Headline: Eastern Conference Elite Clash Saturday Night \u2013 Penguins vs. Canadiens Two of the top six teams in the NHL standings meet in Montreal Saturday night in what is the marquee matchup on a busy day of NHL action. The Canadiens have been great and have gone nine straight games […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":27370,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[53103,1547,2993,2276,1956,3801,2284,895,28647,28648,9942,28650,9943,58191],"class_list":["post-60281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nhl","tag-53103","tag-betting-predictions","tag-free-nhl-picks","tag-hockey-betting","tag-hockey-odds","tag-nhl-free-predictions","tag-nhl-odds","tag-nhl-picks","tag-penguins-canadiens-odds","tag-penguins-canadiens-picks","tag-penguins-vs-canadiens","tag-pittsburgh-penguins-vs-montreal-canadiens","tag-pittsburgh-vs-montreal","tag-pittsburgh-vs-montreal-free-pick"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60281","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\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60281"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60281\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60301,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60281\/revisions\/60301"}],"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=60281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Bet On NHL Hockey Today at One of our top online sportsbooks!!!<\/a><\/h3>\n
\n When: 7:00 PM ET, Saturday, March 2, 2013<\/strong>
\n Where: Bell Centre, Montreal, Quebec<\/strong>
\n Broadcast: CBC, RDS, NHLN-US, ROOT<\/strong>
\nPens vs. Habs Betting Lines from betonline.com<\/a><\/strong>
\nPittsburgh Penguins +1\u00bd -285 +109 Ov 5\u00bd +124<\/strong>
\n Montreal Canadiens -1\u00bd +240 -120 Un 5\u00bd -136<\/strong><\/p>\nClick here now to check out the TOP NHL Cappers at CappersPicks.com!!!<\/a><\/h3>\n
Betting Prediction<\/h3>\n
\n\u2022 Over is 7-2-1 in PIT last 10 Sat. games.
\n\u2022 Over is 16-5-1 in PIT last 22 vs. Northeast.
\n\u2022 MON are 7-2 in their last 9 overall.
\n\u2022 MON are 7-2 in their last 9 vs. Eastern Conference.
\n\u2022 Under is 6-2-1 in MON last 9 vs. Atlantic.<\/p>\n