Montreal at Pittsburgh

The Canadiens shocked the Capitals. Was that due to the skill of Montreal or was it that Washington just wasn't what we thought they were? Time will tell, but based on the results from game one in this series, it appears that it may be the latter. Pittsburgh stormed out of the gates for a 6-3 victory in game one. At even odds, I like Pittsburgh on the puckline here. The Penguins are without Jordan Staal here, but Montreal must go it without Andrei Markov. Pittsburgh is better equipped to deal with the absence of a key player has they have won without Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Sergei Gonchar and Marc-Andre Fleury. The other players just pick up the slack. When Montreal played without Andrei Markov, their top defender, they were just 14-20-3 this season. I don't see Montreal generating enough offense in this game to win it. When facing a team like Pittsburgh that averages 3+ more shots on goal than their opponents on the season, the Canadiens are just 3-15 the past three seasons. In the second round of the playoffs, Montreal is just 3-17 the past fifteen years. I like Pitt's chances at another blowout win. I also like the UNDER. After 9 goals were scored in game one, this total has moved up from 5.5 to 6 - an overreaction to that game, and to the fact that Pittsburgh has gone OVER now in five straight games. But, games featuring a home team that has produced 5+ straight OVERs have gone UNDER 63% of the time (85-49) over the past five seasons. And, let's not forget that Montreal has gone UNDER in three of their last four games. Even after last game, Montreal is 23-14 UNDER this seasons vs. teams that average 2.9+ goals per game. Finally, Montreal is 16-5 UNDER this season on the road after going OVER the total in their previous game.