If you don’t have a team left in the NHL playoffs and you’re looking for someone to root for, let me make the case for the Montreal Canadiens.

The Canadiens are the most decorated franchise in the league with 24 Stanley Cup championships. They won five consecutive titles from 1956 to 1960, appeared in ten straight Finals across that same decade, and produced a dynasty that set generational records. The 1976-77 team lost only eight games in an entire season. Eight. Until the 2022-23 Boston Bruins came along, that 132-point campaign had stood as an 80-game record for almost 50 years.

Their last championship came in 1993. That title is also the last time any Canadian franchise has lifted the Cup, a 32-year drought that weighs on an entire nation this time of year.

The 2021-22 season was rock bottom for the Habs. The rebuild that followed a franchise-worst 22-win season has been one of the better front office stories. General manager Kent Hughes and coach Martin St. Louis, a Quebec native and Hall of Famer, have assembled something exciting.

This season the Canadiens went 48-24-10, their best regular season since the 80s. Cole Caufield scored 51 goals, the first Montreal player to reach 50 since 1990. Captain Nick Suzuki posted 101 points, the first Canadien with a 100-point season since 1986. Lane Hutson, last year's Calder Trophy winner, added 74 points and Ivan Demidov led all NHL rookies in scoring and is a Calder finalist, meaning Montreal could become just the fourth franchise in history to produce back-to-back Rookie of the Year winners.

They are currently leading the top-seeded Buffalo Sabres in the second round after a brutal seven-game first-round series against Tampa Bay. Going through that gauntlet while Carolina has been breezing through opponents with a historic 8-0 run creates an interesting dynamic.

If Montreal can close things out against Buffalo, don’t expect Carolina to win in four again. Montreal went 3-0 against the Hurricanes in the regular season, outscoring them 15-8 across those three games while doing most of their damage during five-on-five. 

Montreal at +350 to win the Eastern Conference and reach the Stanley Cup Final has the support of a nation craving a cup.

⚾ Home Run Cheat Sheet on Pine

Jaxon's Home Run Sheet gives you everything you need to find the best bets before first pitch:

Projections & Odds – See Jaxon's HR projection alongside live over/under odds
Hit Rate – Track how often each player has gone deep over their last ten games and more
Confidence Score – Know which plays Jaxon likes most at a glance

Click on any player to view detailed stats!

🏀 Round 2 Continues: Tonight’s Edge

The Thunder are currently steamrolling the Lakers, but the Pistons and Cavs have a critical game 4 coming up tonight. Here are two valuable spots to target.

Tobias Harris Over 18.5 Points (-105)

Game 4 in Cleveland is a massive swing game. Detroit leads the series 2-1 after Cleveland clawed one back at home in Game 3, and a Pistons win tonight would put them in control heading back home to Detroit. A Cleveland win makes it a best-of-three series.

Tobias Harris has been one of the most reliable performers of this entire postseason and Jaxon confirmed what the surface numbers already suggest. He has scored 20 or more points in eight consecutive playoff games and cleared this 18.5 line in all three against Cleveland, averaging 21 points per game this series. Cleveland's defense against the power forward position ranks dead last in the league.

His postseason usage and aggression are significantly elevated from his regular-season averages, and with Cade Cunningham drawing the primary defensive attention, Harris is consistently finding himself in advantageous situations. Back him to keep the streak going in Cleveland tonight.

Luguentz Dort Over 1.5 Three-Pointers Made (-110)

Oklahoma City is the defending champion, finished 64-18, and owns the best defensive rating in the league. They have been as clinical as you’d expect. It doesn’t help the Lakers that they are having to operate without Luka Doncic. Instead, they are being held together by LeBron James operating as a primary creator against a Thunder defense that ranks first in halfcourt efficiency and first in points allowed. This series has not been particularly close by any metric.

In six games against Los Angeles this year, Luguentz Dort cleared 1.5 threes five times, averaging 2.17 makes per contest. Going back to last season, he was perfect against the Lakers across three games with an average of 4 made threes per game. His recent form supports it across any sample you choose, hitting this line in 70% of his last ten games averaging 5.4 three-point attempts per game.

🌲 The Pine Line

🏈 The Browns drafted a sixth-rounder who thinks he's one of a kind. Cleveland needed another big personality at QB.

🏀 Wemby continues to add to his list of career-firsts. This moment wasn’t his best.

📆 Soccer fans could argue it’s for ‘religious reasons’. The NBA is making changes to accommodate a different sport.

🏀 The WNBA is back in actoin. It’s two biggest stars left their mark on opening weekend.

🏎️ He’s been knocking on the door for two years without answer. His relief after the checkered flag said everything.

👑 Making Longshot Cases for the Conn Smythe Award

by Ed Egros 👉️ Follow on X @EdWithSports

While it feels like the Avalanche and Hurricanes are on a collision course to the Stanley Cup Final, is it possible someone else can realistically surpass either and shock the hockey world?

And, does that possibility mean we should consider placing a small bet on a Conn Smythe winner who doesn’t play for either hockey team?  Let’s look at how the numbers actually play out.

Latest Conn Smythe Odds

On FanDuel, the top six shortest odds to win the honor belong to either Colorado or Carolina.  On Kalshi, it's roughly the same, as four of the highest probabilities play for this pair.  

Finding a Darkhorse

If you want to back someone with longer odds than, say, Nathan MacKinnon or Frederik Andersen, it’s worth backing someone outside of Denver or Raleigh.  The leaders for their respective teams have already done too much these first two rounds of the playoffs for a role player to leapfrog any of them.

The Case for a Golden Knight

On a tier of their own to hoist the Cup are the Vegas Golden Knights.  For this exercise, let’s use their Cup-winning odds prior to Game 4 of 8/1.  

Mitch Marner’s odds to win the Conn Smythe at that point were 17/1, while Jack Eichel’s were 22/1.  Everyone else for Vegas is considerably longer, which makes sense given they’ve accounted for a large chunk of their offense these playoffs.

A Little Math

What if instead of betting on a team championship, you bet on an individual award-winner?  Let’s say you make a $10 bet on Vegas to win it all, you profit $80.  But, if you make $5 bets on both Marner and Eichel, you earn either $85 or $110.  

Can This Process Backfire?

The two ways Vegas wins the Stanley Cup but the Conn Smythe bets do not cash are if the winner is from the losing team or a backup suddenly catches fire in the final two playoff series.

Connor McDavid is the first player on a losing team in the Final to win the honor since 2003.  McDavid’s stature in the sport is enormous, and no one else still playing has that kind of reputation.  History says it’s possible…but barely.

The other hiccup isn’t much of one when you consider Vegas has had defensive and goaltending issues and other forwards needing an epic performance to surpass this duo in overall contribution.

The Verdict

If you believe Vegas’ hot start to the playoffs is sustainable and we should ignore the regular-season struggles, Jaxon and I both like betting on Mitch Marner AND Jack Eichel to win the Conn Smythe.  

💡 Did you know?

You can ask Jaxon for help with a variety of props and contests such as fantasy football drafts, PGA finishing positions, or No-Runs-First-Inning (NRFI) bets!

👉️ Try asking Jaxon for NRFI records this season!