Your Stanley Cup Finals Preview & Monday Evening Open Thread

NFL Nuggets:

it’s a pretty slow day today, what with the holiday next week in the US. Most teams are taking time off before ramping up to the start of camp. To wit:

• Florio is speculating that the opt-out rules give Aaron Rodgers the ability to sit out all of the coming season, with zero financial obligations to the team for not playing this year.
  • His $11.5 million in signing bonus allocation for this year would not be subject to forfeiture.
    • But his $6.8 million roster bonus, earned in March, most likely would still be paid out weekly during the regular season.
    • Then, after the season, he’d presumably be traded.
  • The only problem is that he has to decide by July 2nd.
    • After that, his options are to lose the whole year’s salary, including the bonus, or retire.

• Proving that “wide-right” is in the Bills mantra for timing as well as positioning, Bruce Smith had libertarian sports thoughts on the whole Carl Nassib revelation from last week.
  • “We had a gay player in our locker room. I think it was the mid-to-late ’90s and I think we might have had two but that wasn’t what we were focused on. . . . We were focused on winning games… None of that other stuff mattered.”
  • I’m impressed he didn’t accidentally name names.
    • And I’m sure that the internet, being a kind & compassionate place, won’t go digging into this at all.

^{At least, the ones without brain damage or third-degree burns.}

Stanley Cup Finals Preview: Montreal vs. Tampa Bay

Well, it’s all come down to this, a team that was expected to be here versus a team that shouldn’t have made it past Game 5 of the first round.

Well, now that that’s out of the way, let’s break some things down.

When I made my semi-finals predictions, I kind of cheated. Since only one of the teams I’d picked had made it that far, I decided to pick against the teams I wanted to win, just to see if that might turn out more favourably. Now, I’m the furthest thing from a Habs fan, but I wanted them to beat the Leafs, and I was pissed they beat the Jets. But Vegas? Having Vegas play in the Cup final again would be invalidating my years as a Canucks fan, since the Canucks have planned their team & turned out like dogshit, yet Vegas took other team’s dogshit in the expansion draft & turned into a Cup contender. [FYI – I know the ExDraft rules are changing for Seattle; it doesn’t invalidate my rage.] So, I picked Vegas to beat the Habs, since I wanted to put the kavorka on them.

Now, I think we can all agree the Habs chances start & end with Carey Price. Sure, there’s the veterans Perry & Stall, plus the rookies like Caufield & Suzuki, but c’mon. The man has played out of his mind in these playoffs, and you don’t have to look further than the overtime clincher against Vegas for proof – he stones Pacioretty to get the faceoff, then stops that rocket from the point, allowing his guys to break out & score against the play. That’s been Montreal all playoffs – making the most of their few chances.

Tampa Bay, meanwhile, has been making their own chances. How the hell did they win Game 7 1-0 on a shorthanded goal? That’s ridiculous. Now, I’ll be the first to admit that the Islanders rebounded from their 8-0 Game 5 drubbing by cheapshotting their way to a Game 6 victory, but all that did was expose the weaknesses in their lineup. They don’t have a lot of pitbulls, which under normal circumstances is fine. They have Kucherov, Point, Stamkos & Killorn, so they are stacked for offensive output. And Andrei Vasilevskiy has used his team’s output to amass a 1.99 GAA, so teams aren’t getting that many past him. But the fact they’ve been extended this far means that when they don’t light it up, the games have been close & usually favoured the other team.

I would like to think this series will be tighter than most think it will be. Also, I hope they get to play three games in Canada so the fans can scream at Gary Bettman about the Nordiques every chance they get. Ask any Canadian – francophones have long memories.

Prediction: Vegas Tampa in seven. (It appears the heat got to me.)

Tonight’s sports:

• NHL:
  • Montreal at Tampa Bay – 8:00pm | NBCSN / CBC / Sportsnet
    • Not the weekend = not on NBC
• NBA:
  • Clippers at Suns – 9:00pm | ESPN / Sportsnet1
    • Game 5 – Suns up 3-1
• Futbol:
  • Copa America 2021:
    • Group Stage – Bolivia vs. Argentina – 8:00pm | FS1 / TSN2
• MLB:
  • no national broadcasts
• WWE:
  • Monday Night Raw – 8:00pm | USA / Sportsnet360

Schools were closed today due to the heat, so I got to teach from home. Fortunately, no camera mishaps on my end – I’m not a Canadian politician.