Stanley Cup Betting Series Preview: Montreal Canadiens vs. Pittsburgh Penguins

How They Got Here: Down three games to one against the best team in hockey, no one was giving the Canadiens even a half of a chance to knock the Washington Capitals out of the playoffs. However, they did just that, storming back with three straight wins and shutting down the league’s top offense to move on to the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Player To Watch: You wouldn’t normally think of defensemen as players to watch, and it’s true that D Hal Gill won’t be an offensive difference maker at all in this series. He did record one assist in the seven games against the Caps, but his impact came when he helped shut down the Washington offense. Gill was a +1 in that series, and he was arguably the best defenseman on the team. He’ll be asked to be a real strong, shot blocking defender all series against the Pens as well.
Goalie Outlook: The start of the playoffs were awfully shaky for G Jaroslav Halak, but my did he come to play in Games 5-7! The Slovakian net minder held the Caps to just three total goals in the final three games of the series, including one game in which he stopped the first 51 shots he faced! Halak had a 2.46 GAA, which isn’t fantastic this time of year, but he was clearly the MVP of the series.
Key To Victory: We said that Halak was going to have to have the series of his life for the Habs to make it through Round 1, and we’re going to say the same thing again about Round 2. He just has to keep playing lights out hockey, and as we have seen in the past, a hot goaltender can totally dismantle even the best of offensive clubs.

Pittsburgh Penguins

How They Got Here: The defending champs suddenly found themselves as the favorites to win the Stanley Cup after all of the upsets broke loose in the East. They looked terrible in a Game 1 loss to Ottawa, but were the Penguins were the dominant team in this series. Pittsburgh won four of the last five games with some tremendous offensive efforts, and that’s what brought it through to the second round.
Player To Watch: Is anyone really surprised that the Penguins scored 14 goals that were directly involving C Sidney Crosby in the first series of the playoffs? Sid the Kid leads all point scorers in these playoffs with 14 in total, and he was a +7 in six games against Ottawa. Though it seems like there is no stopping him, it also felt like there was no stopping Washington’s LW Alexander Ovechkin either.
Goalie Outlook: For the third straight postseason, it seems as though Pittsburgh is content to win games in spite of G Marc-Andre Fleury and not because of him. The Canadian goalie stopped just 89.3 percent of his shots in the first round and had a 2.93 GAA. One would like to say that that won’t cut it, but with the way that Pittsburgh is lighting the lamp right now, allowing three goals per game is sufficient.
Key To Victory: Apparently, it’s to just keep scoring! The Pens just went on so many offensive flurries against the Senators that they didn’t have a chance to survive. The defense was shaky though, and that is going to have to improve, especially if Halak continues to play as well as he did in Round 1.

The Final Word: Pittsburgh isn’t going to take the Habs lightly in this matchup after watching them take out the Capitals. Halak may be able to win Montreal a couple of games in this series, but it’s hard to see this one going the max seven games. The Pens closed out one Canadian team on enemy ice in this postseason already, and they’ll make it two by the end of this series as well.