The Best of Three That Should Feature the Toronto Maple Leafs

The Toronto Maple Leafs will not be playing tonight, even if they probably should be.

Instead of watching my beloved Toronto Maple Leafs take to the ice to face the Las Vegas Golden Knights in game five of the NHL’s semi-finals, I will be watching………my new favorite team?

The Montreal Canadiens?

Yeah, you read that right.  I haven’t watched a single game of hockey since the Toronto Maple Leafs were eliminated – I just couldn’t get interested seeing what could have been. But tonight, I’m jumping back in at 9PM.

This is a weird situation for me, because I used to be so used to the Leafs losing I’d keep watching all the way to the Cup being awarded.  Then, last year, with everything going on and the playoffs occurring in late August, I just did not care.  Once the Leafs were done, so was I.

I fully expected that to be a one-off, but honestly, I fully expected the Toronto Maple Leafs to win the Cup this year and that it wouldn’t come up.  It took one round and four games for me to get my interest back enough to sit and watch a full game, which I plan to tonight.

Maybe I’m just excited to see a Canadian team go far.  Probably I was just happy to see the Islanders take a beating last night.

Habs vs Knights

Vegas won on Saturday, despite a strong effort from the Canadiens. Was that their last best shot against a superior opponent?  I hope not, because if I am going to tune in, I want to see a victory.  So far, I’m on a streak of the Canadiens winning the last three hockey games that I watched, so I would bet on them tonight.

Then again, if you want to bet on the best team, do not bet on Montreal.

So far in the four games this series has played, the Vegas Knights have controlled an astonishing 57% of the play.  Sounds familiar.

However, this isn’t the Leafs/Habs series, where the Leafs dominated and the Habs got lucky.

In this series, despite losing the puck possession battle, the Canadiens are actually on top when it comes to expected goals – 53%.  The reason for this is that Montreal is getting way more high-danger scoring chances than the Knights are.  (stats from naturalstattrick.com).

Montreal has 50 dangerous chances at 5v5 this series, to the Knights 34. The crazy thing, is that in game four, where Montreal could have gone up 3-1, they were by far the better team (statistically, at least, I didn’t see the game).

Anyways, here’s hoping they keep it up. I may have betrayed the Leafs by becoming a temporary Montreal Canadiens fan, but Max Pacioretty betrayed the Canadiens by choosing to leave them for the Knights.  Therefore if the Habs win, it all evens-out.  Now that is math for ya.

Go Habs!