Montreal Canadiens vs. Florida Panthers Pick & Prediction NOVEMBER 30th 2023

After a successful and often dramatic road trip, the Montreal Canadiens will look to continue the momentum on home ice when they face the Florida Panthers on Thursday.

The Habs return to Montreal after a 3-2-0 road trip marked by late strikes in all three victories.

Cole Caufield’s third-period equalizer set up an eventual 3-2 shootout win over the San Jose Sharks on Friday, and Alex Newhook and Joel Armia both scored within the last four minutes of regulation to seal wins over the Anaheim Ducks (on Nov. 22) and the Columbus Blue Jackets (on Wednesday).

During the victory in Columbus, the Canadiens trailed 2-1 before scoring three unanswered goals, starting with Caufield’s tally at 14:08 of the second period.

“Any win kind of gives you a boost, no matter how you get it done,” Caufield said. “(Against the Blue Jackets) I liked our third period a lot and how we handled ourselves going into a tied period and coming out on top. There’s for sure some things we can build on.”

The Canadiens play seven of their next eight games in Montreal, including a four-game homestand that begins with a visit from Florida, last season’s Eastern Conference champions.

The Panthers haven’t been in top form recently, posting a modest 1-2-1 record in their past four games.

Florida’s 2-1 shootout loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday featured some particularly hard luck during the tiebreaking skills competition. Nick Cousins hit a goalpost after Evan Rodrigues had the apparent winning marker overturned on a video review.

It was the eighth time this season that Florida outshot an opponent (39-32 over Toronto) without winning the game. A lack of scoring efficiency has hampered the Panthers. While their average of 33.9 shots per game leads the NHL, their 8.6 percent shooting success rate ranks near the bottom of the league.

Panthers opponents also haven’t been scoring much, due to both the strong play of goaltenders Sergei Bobrovsky and Anthony Stolarz and a suddenly unbeatable penalty-kill unit. Florida is 20-for-20 on penalty kills over the past five games and 43-for-48 on the kill over the past 16 games.

Rodrigues described his team’s penalty killers as “outstanding” after a 6-for-6 performance against the Maple Leafs on Tuesday.

“We’ve had a lot of big kills coming into periods, too,” Rodrigues said. “It gives us a little bit of momentum going into a period. … They’re working as a unit, all four guys that are on the ice. When your PK is confident, it’s fast, it’s heavy, you’re on guys. They’re doing a great job.”

While Florida’s penalty-kill has been sharp, the Canadiens are 0-for-17 on the power play over their past seven games.

Cayden Primeau will start in goal on Thursday, according to Montreal coach Martin St. Louis. Primeau has a 3.41 goals against average and an .898 save percentage over four games this season, joining Sam Montembeault and Jake Allen in a three-goalie rotation over the past few weeks.

Since Stolarz faced the Maple Leafs, Bobrovsky will likely return to the starting role against Montreal. Bobrovsky recorded a 20-save shutout in his latest outing, a 5-0 win over the Ottawa Senators on Monday.

The Panthers are 8-1-0 in their past nine games against the Canadiens dating back to the 2019-20 season.

–Field Level Media