Montreal Canadiens skaters have played extremely well in taking out the Toronto Maple Leafs and Winnipeg Jets this postseason. There have been contributions from up and down the lineup with players stepping up to fill a role when needed.
They have also been able to rely on the terrific Carey Price in goal when the Maple Leafs or Jets mounted sustained pressure.
Okay, just the Maple Leafs, did the Jets even get a scoring chance in the two games at the Bell Centre?
The Canadiens will now face their toughest test yet as they take on the Vegas Golden Knights. So will fans of the Habs as Games 1 and 2 don’t even start until well after 9:00 PM EST. Doesn’t Gary Bettman know that Habs fans do have to work on Tuesday morning?
The Habs head into the final four on a seven game winning streak, but the Golden Knights just beat the Colorado Avalanche four times in a row and will be a formidable opponent. Facing such a great team means the Canadiens will need to play their “A” game every night if they are going to have a chance of advancing to the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since 1993.
Marc-Andre Fleury has been excellent this postseason and the top three defencemen, Alex Pietrangelo, Shea Theodore and Alec Martinez have been making things easier for Fleury by limiting quality chances against.
The Golden Knights simply aren’t going to allow a pile of chances. Goals are going to be really hard to come by for the Canadiens in this series. That’s why the team is going to need these three players to produce more offence against the Golden Knights than they did against the Maple Leafs and Jets.