The 25-17-2-4 Ottawa Senators will open up their Eastern conference best of seven NHL Playoff series on the road to face the 29-14-3-2 Montreal Canadians in Game 1 from pro hockey on Thursday night. Face off time for Game 1 is scheduled from Montreal at 7PM Eastern Time with national television coverage provided by CNBC. <br /><br />The NHL pro hockey odds from this playoff game have the home team Montreal Canadians favored by -155 odds with the take back on the road underdog Ottawa Senators at +140 odds. The goal over under is set at 5 goals. <br /><br />Ottawa and Montreal met four times during the lockout year with each team winning twice on home ice. One win by each club at home came in a shootout. <br /><br />Ottawa is 10-11-12 on the road this season. They qualified in the playoffs as an seventh seed in the Eastern conference and held a five point lead over the ninth seeded Winnipeg Jets. They made their playoff push with a four game win streak in mid-April but down the stretch losers of three of their past five games. The team was 27th and fourth last in the NHL in goals per game with just 2.3 a contest. They lead the league with 33.1 shots on goal average. <br /><br />The Canadians enter the Stanley Cup Playoffs as the second seed in the Eastern conference and sport a home mark of 14-7-3-0. With their playoff position secure the Canadians drop five of six games prior to close the regular season with two straight victories all coming on the road. Montreal pushes across 3 goals per game ranking fourth in the NHL and on defense allow just 26.9 shots on goal good for fifth best in the league.
