The Montreal Canadien are in the playoffs for the second consecutive year, but they are in much better positioning than last year. After holding the final Wild Card spot last year, the Canadiens are in third placed in the Atlantic Division, where they put up a legitimate, close fight for first place. This is a team that has taken a significant step out of their rebuild, and are a team fully capable of going on a deep run in the playoffs.
The thing is, not many in the NHL are giving Montreal a chance, especially in their first round matchup against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
The Athletic's Pierre LeBrun reached out to a variety of executives and coaches in the NHL (all of whom not affiliated with the eight Eastern Conference teams in the playoffs) and asked which East team would make it to the Stanley Cup Final. Out of the 23 people polled, the Canadiens received zero votes. Meanwhile, the Lightning received 16.
Canadiens given no chance to make Stanley Cup Final by The Athletic's poll of coaches and executives
As for the other Eastern Conference teams that received votes to make it to the Stanley Cup Final, the Carolina Hurricanes received five and the Buffalo Sabres received two.
Its not necessarily a surprise why the Lightning are considered the favorites in the Eastern Conference. Let's not forget that beginning in 2020, they created a dynasty, one built at the expense of the Canadiens. in the 2021 season, with the divisions and conferences reshuffled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Lightning defeated the Canadiens in the Stanley Cup Final to win the championship in back-to-back seasons. While the team moved on from Steven Stamkos, the team is still a powerhouse with goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy, winger Nikita Kucherov, and center Jake Guentzel. And head coach Jon Cooper is still behind the bench with his wealth of experience.
Canadiens head coach Martin St. Louis was asked on Thursday if he felt that his team was the underdog for their series against Tampa Bay, and he downplayed it. He said that while the Lightning were a good team, so are the Canadiens.
"I'll give you the facts, okay? They're a veteran team. That's been pretty much their standards the last seven-plus years, eight years, 10 years. All right? They're good. We're good, too," said St. Louis. "Those are just facts, whether we're favorite, underdog, we're good. That's why we play the game. So we're not worried about this. We're going to go play the games."
Montreal doesn't have to worry about scoring, as they have five 60-plus point scorers in Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Lane Hutson, Juraj Slafkovsky, and Ivan Demidov. Their defense is not a major strength, but is nowhere near in a brutal state. As for goaltending, they've seen the ups and downs of Jakub Dobes, but they have an intriguing backup in rookie Jacob Fowler, who in his three starts in April recorded a 1.69 goals allowed average, a .932 save percentage, and a 2-1-0 record in three starts.
As all hockey fans know, anything can happen in the playoffs. It's not a given that the best team in the regular season will even win the Stanley Cup, let alone make it to the Final. For the Canadiens, they aren't being given much of a chance against the Lightning. St. Louis says the Canadiens are a good team, so we'll see if they can pull off an upset.
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