Vegas odds are stacked against the Canadiens in Stanley Cup semifinal - Montreal Gazette

Minggu, 13 Juni 2021

Vegas odds are stacked against the Canadiens in Stanley Cup semifinal - Montreal Gazette

The Golden Knights were the biggest favourites in a Stanley Cup semifinal in 31 years after the odds were listed for series against Habs.

Author of the article:

Stu Cowan • Montreal Gazette

"People may have doubted us, but for us in the locker room, we had belief in each other," says Brendan Gallagher. Photo by John Mahoney /Montreal Gazette

The Canadiens are big underdogs heading into their Stanley Cup semifinal series against the Golden Knights that begins Monday night in Las Vegas (9 p.m., CBC, SN, TVA Sports, TSN 690 Radio, 98.5 FM).

How big?

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that the Golden Knights were the biggest favourites in a Stanley Cup semifinal series in 31 years after the odds were listed at -450/+375 at the Westgate, -450/+350 at BetMGM and -435/+350 at Circa Sports.

The -450/+375 odds at the Westgate suggest the Golden Knights have an 81.82 per cent chance of winning the series. You would need to wager $450 to win $100 on the Golden Knights to win the series, while a $100 bet on the Canadiens would net $375 if they pull off the upset.

“I can’t remember a price like this in the semifinals,” Westgate vice-president Ed Salmons told the Review-Journal. “Usually, you don’t see weak teams get to the final four. On paper, it looks like a complete mismatch. It’s hockey. If one team struggles to score and a goalie plays out of his mind, that always gives you a chance. But it would be shocking to me if the Knights didn’t win this series.”

The odds don’t concern the Canadiens’ Brendan Gallagher.

“That would be a problem if we didn’t have a belief in our locker room,” Gallagher said Sunday when asked about the Canadiens being big underdogs. “I think when we started this whole thing at the start of the year we had the same goal in mind and every single guy believed in it regardless of what outside our room might have thought. We got off to a great start (7-1-2 to start the season) and I think people started to believe in us. Went through a dip in the middle of the season and a lot of people probably jumped off the bandwagon. But for us in the room, the belief stayed the same, the goal stayed the same. And then starting the playoffs off it was kind of the same way.

“People may have doubted us, but for us in the locker room, we had belief in each other,” Gallagher added. “It’s the same thing going into this series. We know what type of team that we are, we know how we have to play to have success and then this whole week leading up to this has been making sure that we’re going to be sharp and pick up where we left off. The perception of our group doesn’t mean a whole lot outside the locker room. It’s more so just how we feel inside it and, as of now, we have a lot of belief and hopefully that continues going forward.”

When asked Sunday if the Canadiens were looking to prove people wrong in this series, Paul Byron said: “It’s not something you think about every day. You just know that people doubt your team, people always doubt us. But I think all our guys on the team have internal fuel on their own. It’s not just about proving wrong, but it’s about proving yourself right, proving your teammates right, showing up to work every day, working for them, doing what you can to help the team win.

“It doesn’t really matter what’s said outside the room,” Byron added. “We’ve always had internal belief in ourselves, what we can do as a group. You look around the room, the players that we have, Shea (Weber) and Corey (Perry) and Gally, Phil (Danault), Cole (Caufield) now, Eric (Staal). We have guys that have won, we have young guys, lots of great role players. It’s not too often you have a team of our calibre right now and a chance like we have on our table, so we want to make the most of that. It’s the best time of year. You work all year for this moment and it’s time to get started.”

The Golden Knights had a 40-14-2 record during the regular season, finishing 23 points ahead of the Canadiens, who were 24-21-11. The Golden Knights beat the Minnesota Wild in seven games in the first round of the best-of-seven playoffs and eliminated the Colorado Avalanche in six games in the second round, winning the last four games. The Canadiens beat the Toronto Maple Leafs in seven games in the first round and swept the Winnipeg Jets in the second round and are now on a seven-game winning streak.

“We’re well aware we’re the underdogs,” Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin said Saturday. “Like Tyler (Toffoli) said, we don’t care. We’re going over there and we’ll be ready to face the challenge on Monday night.

“So far the underdog hasn’t hurt us at all,” the GM added.

scowan@postmedia.com

twitter.com/StuCowan1

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2021-06-13 22:32:14Z
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Minggu, 13 Juni 2021