Written by Graeme on Thursday, May 21st, 2026
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A great start for the Vegas Golden Knights yesterday, as they jump out to a 1-0 lead in the series.
I’m in a rush so let’s get to it:
Scott: Well to sweep both your first and second round matchup is great and tells you how good this team is.
Hall and Blake have been amazing and shows how they have great secondary scoring. Stankovan, Jarvis, Staal and Ehlers have also put up points. Miller, Slavin, Gostisbehere and Chatfield have played great defensively. Andersen has been amazing winning, obviously, all 8 games and has a 1.12 GAA and a .950 save percentage.
The Canadiens have taken the long way to get here. The beat the Lightning in 7 games and then the Sabres also in 7. They have also had games go to overtime in this postseason 5 times.
Suzuki, Slafkovsky, Newhook and Caufield have been getting them their points. They have also gotten help from Demidov, Evans, Bolduc and Danault. Hutson leads the team in points and he is joined by Guhle, Matheson and Dobson to give them a solid defense. Dobes has been great for them making key saves and has a 2.52 GAA and a .910 save percentage.
They have had 12 days off which is the longest layoff in NHL playoff history. If that hurts them or helps them remains to be seen but the Canes seem to be the team to beat. The Habs haven’t had the time off the Canes have so will that help or hurt them. They have played the complete opposite number of games which I think should benefit the Habs but not enough to get past these Canes.
Hurricanes -1.5
Graeme: The rest is really the only concern for the Hurricanes. You just never know how a team will react. I will be honest I am in a big rush here so can’t really write much but as you can imagine, the advanced metrics go their way.
I am in Montreal right now and it is Habs crazy. Very fun and hoping I at least get to be at a bar to see one win but I gotta go with Hurricanes -1.5. Unless the rest hampers them, I think this is just one step too far for Montreal.
Very original bets lol how is this a step too far for the Habs they are just as good everywhere on the ice if not better and have swept the regular season series. One of these teams has been to the finals as well in the past 5 years and it’s not the hurricanes, let’s see how it plays out.
Your comment is aging quite nicely as they put up a 4 spot on Freddy in the first period lol I took them to win the first period at +135 relying on rust and the layoff and despite Hurricanes scoring first, was the easiest cash ever