Hi TopG, brothers and sisters and whomever you beautiful souls are....
I wish you all the very best tonight. But I do have a couple contrary thoughts here...
Montreal HAS BEEN playing their home games in front of a live crowd. Albeit about a 30% capacity crowd (yes, there are more there than advertised, trust me on that from the inside, I've never lead y'all astray...). The only reason I use caps there is not to be yelling, but to visually highlight that one point. The other venues had no "fans", correct. Again, knowing the "guts" of some of these buildings very well, there is still plenty of "outside" support even if the public admittance is labeled 0%.
Yes, that 30% may be only a few die-hards looking through a small window compared to the open world that is now Vegas...BUT I think that slight ease into a crowd will help them combat the Vegas noise. Kotkaniemi, Suzuki, Toffoli are all playing with giant smiles on their face. Hockey is a sport that encompasses all emotions, as all sports do, but at a very intense and fast pace. I have rarely seen so many smiles on a bench in playing/coaching/spectating but when I do, I get worried. There is something to be said about having loose hands and a loose mind going into games ESPECIALLY when you aren't "even supposed to be there", if you will. Even with everything happening so fast, there is a vaxed, waxed and relaxed vibe about Montreal. They have exceeded expectations being here and Carey Price is a muthafukking stud, old, but as the homie FreshStart says "cashing tickets is all that matters"...and lately, he's the dude with the green visor cashing allllllll your Habs fan-grandma's tickets LOL...... Yes the goaltending duo in black, white and gold is menacing too, but Carey has played with a massive Dorito on his shoulder.
At the "price" they will be every night, I can't help but shamefully throw a unit or two on MTL, until the price changes. Using my Bet365 odds, 1.37 for da Armour is an NHL ML price I would never pay in a playoff game for anyone, even regular season. Pretty sure Vegas was like 1.38-1.45 faves this year many times and DEF didn't win 'em all. Coming into an EIGHTH possible straight win in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, yes EIGHTH...I will put my chips (prob Circus Circus chips, lots of wanderlust midwest hot moms have to stay there cuz of the darn kids) on Les Habitents tonight.
How many Habs fans there will be my (non-betting curious) question...and they may LOVE the idea they are the biggest 'dogs right now. The lowly Habs will be RELISHING that, after playing KETCHUP to Toronto in HOGTOWN, making a HASH of WinniPIG, they will come out with some MUSTARD, no HOT DOGGING and play hard in everybody's GRILL and may end up top CHEESE...................MAYO bets win!
Peace and harmony to all.
(Written by a HUGE Leafs and Kings fan...but don't let the latter fool you, the former is the one that matters here...)