Round 3: Vegas Golden Knights vs. Montreal Canadiens

[bustaheims]

Toronto beat Montreal more times than Winnipeg and Vegas did combined. No Montreal player has more goals than William Nylander going into the Cup final. Hockey is weird.

Montreal was a bad bounce away from being eliminated in the 1st round. Obviously, that bounce didn't happen, but, still...

Nevertheless, when the Leafs and Habs face in the playoffs, the winner has always won the Cup. Montreal has put themselves in position to keep that going.

 

[bustaheims]

I think what bugs me the most is that Montreal wouldn't have made the playoffs with standard divisional alignment, and there's a good chance they won't make the playoffs next season.

They're the 90/91 Minnesota North Stars.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

I think what bugs me the most is that Montreal wouldn't have made the playoffs with standard divisional alignment, and there's a good chance they won't make the playoffs next season.

They're the 90/91 Minnesota North Stars.

Yeah that's the big thing I can't get over. If a 86-point team can win the Cup then what's even the point of the regular season? I know playoffs can be fluky and every team needs some luck on their side to win once you get there but this just takes it to the extreme.

 

[herman]

Didn't the sens make a Cup final run, get very full of themselves, and subsequently hahahahaha

 

[bustaheims]

Didn't the sens make a Cup final run, get very full of themselves, and subsequently hahahahaha

They only made the Conference final in a year where they weren't actually good.

 

[bustaheims]

Yeah that's the big thing I can't get over. If a 86-point team can win the Cup then what's even the point of the regular season? I know playoffs can be fluky and every team needs some luck on their side to win once you get there but this just takes it to the extreme.

Yeah. I also think it highlights a issue with the differing officiating standards. With regular season level officiating or stricter, they don't make it out of the first round. With the lapsed enforcement . . . it's no longer about which team is the most talented, has the most skill, whatever, when they should be what the league is looking to highlight in the playoffs. Let the stars be stars when the light shines the brightest.

 

[Frank E]

Good on Montreal.  Taking advantage of their opportunity and running with it. 

I'm in no need of feeling jealousy or hatred towards the Habs at this point.  Instead, I'm re-directing my frustration and annoyance squarely on the Leafs, who completely botched things up.

I have a strong distaste for habs and habs fans, but all this conversation about how they don't deserve to be where they are is a little bananas to me.

They beat the Leafs, cleaned out the Jets, and now have beaten another very strong team in Vegas. 

Same with the Lou talk, they've made it to the second round two years in a row...maybe not good enough to win it all, but who knows!  Lou's result has been better than Dubas' over the past 2 years if we're talking about how far into the tournament they got.

Dubas has spent millions over the cap, performed cap acrobatics, leveraged all of MLSE $$ reasonably possible to acquire talent, and still the Leafs on-ice product doesn't show up when the season is on the line...2 years in a row now.

Congrats to the habs for finding a way to win.  It pisses me off, but I really don't think about hockey these days...I stopped watching 10 minutes into game 7 against the habs.  That fanbase though...they're insufferable...we're all going to hear about this run until the Leafs get to a final.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

https://twitter.com/SNstats/status/1408441834771263492

Umm... one of these isn't quite like the others...

 

[rdowdall]

Good on Montreal.  Taking advantage of their opportunity and running with it. 

I'm in no need of feeling jealousy or hatred towards the Habs at this point.  Instead, I'm re-directing my frustration and annoyance squarely on the Leafs, who completely botched things up.

I have a strong distaste for habs and habs fans, but all this conversation about how they don't deserve to be where they are is a little bananas to me.

They beat the Leafs, cleaned out the Jets, and now have beaten another very strong team in Vegas. 

Same with the Lou talk, they've made it to the second round two years in a row...maybe not good enough to win it all, but who knows!  Lou's result has been better than Dubas' over the past 2 years if we're talking about how far into the tournament they got.

Dubas has spent millions over the cap, performed cap acrobatics, leveraged all of MLSE $$ reasonably possible to acquire talent, and still the Leafs on-ice product doesn't show up when the season is on the line...2 years in a row now.

Congrats to the habs for finding a way to win.  It pisses me off, but I really don't think about hockey these days...I stopped watching 10 minutes into game 7 against the habs.  That fanbase though...they're insufferable...we're all going to hear about this run until the Leafs get to a final.

Yeah, that's where I ended up.  It's not that I really have anything against the team, it's more the fan reaction.  But even there, it's hard to fault them.  The team has made it to the finals and they did by playing a team game committed to defence.

 

[Frank E]

Yeah that's the big thing I can't get over. If a 86-point team can win the Cup then what's even the point of the regular season? I know playoffs can be fluky and every team needs some luck on their side to win once you get there but this just takes it to the extreme.

Yeah. I also think it highlights a issue with the differing officiating standards. With regular season level officiating or stricter, they don't make it out of the first round. With the lapsed enforcement . . . it's no longer about which team is the most talented, has the most skill, whatever, when they should be what the league is looking to highlight in the playoffs. Let the stars be stars when the light shines the brightest.

I don't buy it.  I think this is sour grapes stuff.  Here's a list of guys at a point per game:

Jonathan Huberdeau
Nikita Kucherov
Nathan MacKinnon
David Pastrnak
Gabriel Landeskog
Mikko Rantanen
Leon Draisaitl
Evgeni Malkin
Brayden Point
Aleksander Barkov
William Nylander
Charlie McAvoy
Brad Marchand
Mark Scheifele
Sam Bennett
Connor McDavid
Cale Makar
Kris Letang
Sebastian Aho
Steven Stamkos

There's a lot of stars there making things happen still.

 

[rdowdall]

https://twitter.com/SNstats/status/1408441834771263492

Umm... one of these isn't quite like the others...

They got some feedback and tried to massage it.

 

[Peter D.]

Yeah that's the big thing I can't get over. If a 86-point team can win the Cup then what's even the point of the regular season? I know playoffs can be fluky and every team needs some luck on their side to win once you get there but this just takes it to the extreme.

I see this being said a lot now.  If this is the case, then anoint the regular season winners as the true winners and have the playoffs as a separate tournament played for a different trophy.

 

[Peter D.]

I think what bugs me the most is that Montreal wouldn't have made the playoffs with standard divisional alignment, and there's a good chance they won't make the playoffs next season.

They're the 90/91 Minnesota North Stars.

Unless the league changes the format to 1 through 16 league wide, aren't there usually always going to be an anomaly or two making things wonky?  Two teams from one conference that missed would have made the playoffs had they been in the other conference.  It really doesn't bother me considering the setup.

Do agree that Montreal likely misses the playoffs next year when they're back in a division with Tampa, Boston, Toronto and Florida, with an up and coming Ottawa team too.

 

[wnc096]

Didn't the sens make a Cup final run, get very full of themselves, and subsequently hahahahaha

The year they went to the final they were a legit contender.  105 point team with star players like Spezza, Alfredsson, and Heatley.

This Canadiens team's success is baffling...outside of Price they have zero star power, but they can shut you down.

 

[Highlander]

I think what bugs me the most is that Montreal wouldn't have made the playoffs with standard divisional alignment, and there's a good chance they won't make the playoffs next season.

They're the 90/91 Minnesota North Stars.

Unless the league changes the format to 1 through 16 league wide, aren't there usually always going to be an anomaly or two making things wonky?  Two teams from one conference that missed would have made the playoffs had they been in the other conference.  It really doesn't bother me considering the setup.

Do agree that Montreal likely misses the playoffs next year when they're back in a division with Tampa, Boston, Toronto and Florida, with an up and coming Ottawa team too.

No, I think Montreal has discovered an identity, Cole Caufield has been a revelation and Suzuki and Koki are not far behind.  If Price can stay sharp next season and that towering D I think they will have a real good chance. They have a real killer instinct.

 

[herman]

Didn't the sens make a Cup final run, get very full of themselves, and subsequently hahahahaha

The year they went to the final they were a legit contender.  105 point team with star players like Spezza, Alfredsson, and Heatley.

This Canadiens team's success is baffling...outside of Price they have zero star power, but they can shut you down.

I think I was thinking of 2017, rather than 2007. They made it to the Conference Final on Erik Karlsson's last leg.

 

[rdowdall]

I think what bugs me the most is that Montreal wouldn't have made the playoffs with standard divisional alignment, and there's a good chance they won't make the playoffs next season.

They're the 90/91 Minnesota North Stars.

Unless the league changes the format to 1 through 16 league wide, aren't there usually always going to be an anomaly or two making things wonky?  Two teams from one conference that missed would have made the playoffs had they been in the other conference.  It really doesn't bother me considering the setup.

Do agree that Montreal likely misses the playoffs next year when they're back in a division with Tampa, Boston, Toronto and Florida, with an up and coming Ottawa team too.

No, I think Montreal has discovered an identity, Cole Caufield has been a revelation and Suzuki and Koki are not far behind.  If Price can stay sharp next season and that towering D I think they will have a real good chance. They have a real killer instinct.

My company brought Ryan Walter into talk to us about team work and leadership.  He mentioned how important it is for the teams to keep themselves accountable and to make sure that everyone is keeping everyones confidence up, and that he saw teams with lots of talent fail because the team just fractures.  He says that the 86 team he was on that won the cup was like that.  Roy came up, they started to play for one another and then they won the cup.  Kinda similar to what is happening here.

 

[Peter D.]

No, I think Montreal has discovered an identity, Cole Caufield has been a revelation and Suzuki and Koki are not far behind.  If Price can stay sharp next season and that towering D I think they will have a real good chance. They have a real killer instinct.

Their youngsters have certainly come into their own and have gained a lot of confidence as the playoffs have progressed.  They've all impressed me.

 

[herman]

https://twitter.com/SNstats/status/1408441834771263492

Umm... one of these isn't quite like the others...

They got some feedback and tried to massage it.

https://twitter.com/SNstats/status/1408450036502044677
Nailed it!

 

[CarltonTheBear]

lmao