{"id":556246,"date":"2026-04-19T19:56:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T19:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/556246\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T19:56:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T19:56:13","slug":"montreal-canadiens-given-under-30-odds-to-win-series-vs-lightning-despite-regular-season-edge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/556246\/","title":{"rendered":"Montreal Canadiens given under 30% odds to win series vs Lightning despite regular season edge"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t  &#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/660176.webp\" style=\"width:100%;\" border=\"0\" alt=\"Montreal Canadiens forward Juraj Slafkovsky (20) celebrates with teammates including forward Cole Caufield (13) and forward Nick Suzuki (14) after scoring a goal against the Tampa Bay Lightning during the third period at the Bell Centre.\" title=\"Montreal Canadiens forward Juraj Slafkovsky (20) celebrates with teammates including forward Cole Caufield (13) and forward Nick Suzuki (14) after scoring a goal against the Tampa Bay Lightning during the third period at the Bell Centre.\"\/>&#13;<\/p>\n<p>Photo credit: Eric Bolte-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p>In a few hours, the Montreal Canadiens will hit the ice for Game 1 of their first-round series against the Tampa Bay Lightning\u2014and no one believes in them.<\/p>\n<p>According to bookmakers, the Montreal Canadiens have less than a 30% chance of winning this series.<\/p>\n<p>Less than 30%. You read that right!<\/p>\n<p>Despite a 106-point season, despite finishing sixth overall in the NHL standings, despite a 2-1-1 record against Tampa this season, the Habs are considered heavy underdogs.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re talking about +240 odds for the Montreal Canadiens (3.40).<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s massive, and it\u2019s a clear slight against a team that was dominant all season.<\/p>\n<p>Lightning experience vs Canadiens youth sets tone for Game 1 matchup<\/p>\n<p>The Lightning\u2019s experience tips the scale\u2014Jon Cooper, Nikita Kucherov, Corey Perry, Andrei Vasilevskiy&#8230; you name it.<\/p>\n<p>Tampa has serious playoff pedigree.<\/p>\n<p>But the Canadiens\u2019 youth could be their greatest weapon.<\/p>\n<p>Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Lane Hutson, Ivan Demidov, Juraj Slafkovsky.<\/p>\n<p>None of them are afraid of anyone.<\/p>\n<p>And that\u2019s exactly the kind of situation that can ignite a locker room.<\/p>\n<p>Head coach Martin St-Louis won\u2019t even need to find a motivational speech tonight.<\/p>\n<p>The odds speak for themselves.<\/p>\n<p>They know no one is giving them a chance.<\/p>\n<p>And that might be the best thing that could happen to a young team like this.<\/p>\n<p>And you\u2014do you believe the Montreal Canadiens have more than a 30% chance of winning this series against the Tampa Bay Lightning?<\/p>\n<p>Previously on Montreal Hockey Fanatics<\/p>\n<p>POLL<\/p>\n<p>08 MINUTES AGO|7 ANSWERS<\/p>\n<p>Montreal Canadiens given under 30% odds to win series vs Lightning despite regular season edge<\/p>\n<p>Will the Montreal Canadiens pull off an upset and eliminate the Tampa Bay Lightning?<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#13; &#13; &#13; Photo credit: Eric Bolte-Imagn Images In a few hours, the Montreal Canadiens will hit the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":556247,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5103],"tags":[265,5,412,264,21,62809,5147,4,60,92,62808],"class_list":{"0":"post-556246","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-montreal-canadiens","8":"tag-canadiens","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-martin-st-louis","11":"tag-montreal","12":"tag-montreal-canadiens","13":"tag-montreal-canadiens-are-the-underdogs","14":"tag-montrealcanadiens","15":"tag-nhl","16":"tag-nhl-playoffs","17":"tag-tampa-bay-lightning","18":"tag-the-montreal-canadiens-have-about-a-30-chance-of-winning-their-series-against-the-tampa-bay-lightni"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116433138459379208","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=556246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556246\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/556247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}