Boston Bruins vs Montreal Canadiens Prediction, Odds and Picks for Today, 03/17/26

It has been a long time since the Bruins-Canadiens rivalry had some playoff juice, and the Bell Centre will give both teams an extra boost on Tuesday night for a playoff feel. The Bruins can close the gap in the playoff race by stealing a win on the road, but an important game on Monday night against the New Jersey Devils stood in their way before this matchup. Meanwhile, the Canadiens lost 2 tough home games on Saturday and Sunday and should be highly motivated to earn 2 points with the extra rest.

The goaltending situation will be an interesting one to watch, as Bruins head coach Marco Sturm took a risk by starting Joonas Korpisalo on Monday night to save Jeremy Swayman for the matchup with their rivals. Korpisalo managed to secure a point for the Bruins against the Devils, which leaves Swayman to clean up the mess on Tuesday and attempt to surpass the Canadiens in the standings. The Canadiens’ projected starter is Jacob Fowler, who stole the show in Montreal’s win on Wednesday against the Ottawa Senators but suffered a tough loss to the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday.

The Bruins are 4-0 on the second night of a back-to-back this season, and they’ll get a rested Swayman between the pipes following a disappointing loss to the Devils on Monday night. The Canadiens’ ugly defense has been popping back up recently, and their recent struggles could see them fall down to the wild-card standings.

Bruins vs Canadiens prediction: Boston ML (+145) available at time of publishing. Playable at that price.