Does Schneider really count??

Lots of Rangers fans, too. Even I'll admit I can be an annoying biased Rangers fan sometimes lol.

Series prediction: Vegas over Montreal in 5

I see this series being either an easy Vegas win or a hard fought series that could go either way

I don't always pick the "favourite" (although I don't even know if Vegas is the favourite lol) but I went with Vegas because, not to discredit Montreal (they played great in the first 2 rounds), Montreal hasn't had the hardest path to the 3rd round. Yes, they beat Toronto, who was better than some people gave them credit for, but Winnipeg played a lot worse than I expected, and Toronto wasn't as big a challenge for them as Colorado, Boston, or Florida IMO.

Vegas is definitely the favourite as many people like you did will bring up the north is weaker argument

I'm not even sure if the North is weaker, it's just that Montreal's opponents didn't play as well as I expected. Maybe it's something about how Montreal plays, though, and maybe that'll stop Vegas. I'm still picking Vegas in 5, though.

Teams from the old divisions that made the playoffs this year:
Pacific: 2/8 (Edmonton and Vegas)
Metropolitan: 4/8 (Carolina, New York Islanders, Washington, and Pittsburgh)
Atlantic: 5/8 (Tampa Bay, Montreal, Boston, Toronto, and Florida)
Central: 5/7 (Colorado, Minnesota, Winnipeg, Nashville, and St. Louis) But none made the conference finals.

Yeah Pacific next year is Vegas and okay, meh, bad teams

Atlantic division is a powerhouse...

Yep

Vancouver and Calgary had really bad seasons, and they could still easily finish 3rd in the division. Seattle really couldn’t hope for a better situation. Arizona’s going out of the frying pan and into the fire.

The Atlantic division is going to be murder next year. Detroit and Buffalo are write-offs, but Ottawa had a better end of the season than Montréal did, and you still have the Bruins, Leafs, Panthers, Canadiens, and the best team in the league in Tampa Bay. In addition to that, they’re fighting for wildcard spots with the second best division in the Metro. Meanwhile the Western Conference only has 3-4 good teams. (And maybe Seattle, but we’ll see how that turns out)

Hopefully the NHL will shake things up a bit. Unless Seattle manages to pull a Vegas and come out hot, the pacific will be mostly easy dubs.

They can’t and won’t make any changes to the divisions. The current ones make the most geographical sense, and the NHL can’t just change around the divisions every year they predict there might be a power imbalance.

The atlantic division is going to be crazy. There are 5 really solid teams in that division.

And Ottawa is no joke either. Especially if they get even slightly below average goaltending.

EDIT: THIS IS NOT INCLUDING THE MOST RECENT GAME, BECAUSE I AM AN IDIOT. I’LL RE-POST THE CORRECT STATS IN A FEW MINUTES.



In honour of the playoff series that starts tonight, here’s a look at Vegas and Montréal’s 5 game history playing against each other:

Montréal - Nov. 7th, 2017 - 3-2 MTL
Las Vegas - Feb. 17th, 2018 - 6-3 VGK
Montréal - Nov. 10th, 2018 - 5-4 MTL
Las Vegas - Dec. 22nd, 2018 - 4-3 MTL (OT)
Las Vegas - Oct. 31st, 2019 - 5-4 MTL (OT)

Game winning goals:
1. 2nd/03:31 - Max Pacioretty
2. 2nd/03:07 - Ryan Carpenter
3. 3rd/12:17 - Tomáš Tatar
4. OT/01:59 - Paul Byron
5. OT/00:26 - Max Domi

Leading point scorers for each team (G, A, P):
VGK
1. W.Karlsson - 3, 4, 7
2. J.Marchessault - 2, 5, 7
3. R.Smith - 2, 3, 5
4. B.Hunt - 2, 1, 3
5. A.Tuch - 2, 1, 3
6. N.Schmidt - 1, 2, 3
7. C.Eakin - 0, 3, 3
8. B.Pirri - 2, 0, 2
9. T.Hyka - 1, 1, 2
10. R.Carpenter - 1, 1, 2
11. E.Haula - 1, 1, 2
12. D.Engelland - 0, 2, 2
13. B.McNabb - 0, 2, 2
14. C.Miller - 0, 2, 2
MTL
1. P.Danault - 4, 1, 5
2. B.Gallagher - 2, 3, 5
3. T.Tatar - 1, 4, 5
4. M.Domi - 1, 4, 5
5. J.Petry - 0, 4, 4
6. C.Hudon - 2, 1, 3
7. A.Shaw - 2, 1, 3
8. J.Benn - 1, 2, 3
9. V.Mete - 0, 3, 3
10. M.Pacioretty - 1, 1, 2
11. J.Kotkaniemi - 1, 1, 2
12. J.Drouin - 1, 1, 2

Goalies:
Price: 1-1-0, .889 sv%, 3.23 GAA
Lindgren: 1-0-0, .935 sv%, 2.00 GAA
Kinkaid: 1-0-0, .886 sv%, 3.99 GAA
Niemi: 1-0-0, .841 sv%, 6.01 GAA

Fleury: 1-2-1, .872 sv%, 3.97 GAA
Lagace: 0-1-0, .893 sv%, 3.12 GAA


Other interesting things about the series:
- The Golden Knights have never won a game in Montréal.
- Max Pacioretty has more points against Vegas in his career than he does against Montréal.
- The habs currently have the 2nd longest streak of not trailing in the playoffs at 437:53. They are 50:45 behind the 1960 Montréal Canadiens, for 1st, so they would need to get past the 10:45 mark in the 3rd period (9:15 left) to pass them.

This is awesome!

By the way: Vegas @ Montreal January 18th, 2020

I totally forgot about Tomas Hyka

You’ve got to be freaking kidding me. I can’t believe I missed it. Thanks for pointing that out, gimme a few minutes while I go fix all of this.

Tonight’s gonna be another super interesting game.

Tampa gets outplayed by the Isles - who against the “odds” (but not a surprise), put Tampa to work and get a huge win.

Today is the same thing; I’m assuming Vegas gets the win today. Better team, they’re in Vegas, and they’re riding high.

But Montreal has gotten needed rest. Which is big and Petry is in. Plus we’ll get to see how their “scouting” has gone. The first non Canadian game for all of Canada happens today. It’s not a huge deal but it’s worth noting that Canada hasn’t seen the big dogs yet. So I think even if they lose game 1, if they can find some confidence in any way; that’ll help more than anything. All this game to me is, CAN Montreal find confidence in Vegas (which is not easy) and can they take away positives from the game even if they lose.

Predicting:
1-0 Vegas, Overtime…

UPDATED

In honour of the playoff series that starts tonight, here’s a look at Vegas and Montréal’s 6 game history playing against each other:

Montréal - Nov. 7th, 2017 - 3-2 MTL
Las Vegas - Feb. 17th, 2018 - 6-3 VGK
Montréal - Nov. 10th, 2018 - 5-4 MTL
Las Vegas - Dec. 22nd, 2018 - 4-3 MTL (OT)
Las Vegas - Oct. 31st, 2019 - 5-4 MTL (OT)
Montréal - Jan. 18th, 2020 - 5-4 MTL (SO)

Game winning goals:
1. 2nd/03:31 - Max Pacioretty
2. 2nd/03:07 - Ryan Carpenter
3. 3rd/12:17 - Tomáš Tatar
4. OT/01:59 - Paul Byron
5. OT/00:26 - Max Domi
6. SO - Tomáš Tatar

Leading point scorers for each team (G, A, P):
VGK
1. J.Marchessault - 3, 5, 8
2. W.Karlsson - 3, 4, 7
3. R.Smith - 3, 4, 7
4. B.Hunt - 2, 1, 3
5. A.Tuch - 2, 1, 3
6. N.Schmidt - 1, 2, 3
7. C.Eakin - 0, 3, 3
8. S.Theodore - 0, 3, 3
9. B.Pirri - 2, 0, 2
10. T.Hyka - 1, 1, 2
11. R.Carpenter - 1, 1, 2
12. E.Haula - 1, 1, 2
13. M.Pacioretty - 1, 1, 2
14. D.Engelland - 0, 2, 2
15. B.McNabb - 0, 2, 2
16. C.Miller - 0, 2, 2
17. P.Stastny - 0, 2, 2
MTL
1. P.Danault - 4, 2, 6
2. M.Domi - 1, 5, 6
3. B.Gallagher - 2, 3, 5
4. T.Tatar - 1, 4, 5
5. J.Petry - 0, 4, 4
6. C.Hudon - 2, 1, 3
7. A.Shaw - 2, 1, 3
8. J.Benn - 1, 2, 3
9. V.Mete - 0, 3, 3
10. N.Cousins - 2, 0, 0
11. M.Pacioretty - 1, 1, 2
12. J.Kotkaniemi - 1, 1, 2
13. J.Drouin - 1, 1, 2
14. J.Armia - 1, 1, 2
15. D.Weise - 0, 2, 2

Price: 2-1-0, .886 sv%, 3.40 GAA
Lindgren: 1-0-0, .935 sv%, 2.00 GAA
Kinkaid: 1-0-0, .886 sv%, 3.99 GAA
Niemi: 1-0-0, .841 sv%, 6.01 GAA

Fleury: 1-1-3, .875 sv%, 4.13 GAA
Lagace: 0-1-0, .893 sv%, 3.12 GAA

Other interesting things about the series:
- The Golden Knights have never won a game in Montréal.
- The habs currently have the 2nd longest streak of not trailing in the playoffs at 437:53. They are 50:45 behind the 1960 Montréal Canadiens, for 1st, so they would need to get past the 10:45 mark in the 3rd period (9:15 left) to pass them.

Those numbers are real rough for the goalies. Shoutout to Antti Niemi for letting in 3 goals on 6 shots in the one game, hence the GAA. And Price ended up getting the loss on his record in that game, because the habs lost 6-3.

Prediction for tonight:
2-1 VGK over MTL in 2OT

@EsoYeezus69
@Devil1122
Btw there was an error made in the scoring for the Gib and Holder fight. The results have been overturned to a unanimous decision W for Big Gibber!