Stanley Cup Semi Final Game 1- Montreal at Vegas

Montreal at Vegas -255

Tonight is Game 1 of the second Stanley Cup Semi-Final between the Montreal Canadiens and Vegas Golden Knights. Montreal was the 4 seed in the North Division coming back from a 3-1 deficit against Toronto and swept the Winnipeg Jets to advance to this point. Vegas beat Minnesota in a 7 game slugfest in the 1st round and after losing the first two games against Colorado they won 4 straight to advance to the Final Four. There are many subplots to this series the biggest one for me has to be Marc-Andre Fleury vs Carey Price with the opportunity for two veteran Canadian Goaltenders to advance for a chance to play for Lord Stanley's Mug. Another subplot has to be Nick Suzuki vs Max Pacioretty. Back in September 2018, Vegas acquired Pacioretty for Suzuki, Tomas Tatar, and a 2019 Second Round Pick that will not have an impact on this series. A big question mark for Montreal has to be Jeff Petry who missed Game 4 against Winnipeg after dislocating two fingers in Game 3. A huge impact on this series will be the travel from Las Vegas to Montreal which would usually not be expected in a conference final. In this game, I'm going to trust the momentum that the Golden Knights have gained in that last series and win this game 1. I don't know if it is quite yet time for Carey Price to steal a game but it should be a more even series than we expect. 

Record: 38-29