Since we could be about to be drowned in "the NHL playoffs are pure chaos" takes, I'm glad @JFreshHockey published this excellent post about how the Canadiens are Actually Good: jfresh.substack.com/p/the-canadien…
It's nearly impossible to think of the Habs of scrappy hipster underdogs because of their history, but if you look at the @EvolvingWild data, they've had very strong underlying metrics for years, and were also a possession monster this year until Gallagher got hurt: 
Price's regular season decline meant that the record didn't match the underlying quality of the team, but between Price's reemergence as elite during the playoffs and the critical addition of Caufield, it shouldn't be *that* surprising to see the Habs in the finals
When a team you don't watch every day goes on a run you usually discover an excellent player you didn't fully appreciate, and for me it's definitely Phillip Danault:
https://twitter.com/Thats_Offside/status/1408464834354552833
Also worth noting that the Jets series was the most lopsided series in the history of modern analytics
"At some point, you gotta just watch and enjoy the hockey and stop playing dress-up as the head of NHL marketing" cannot possibly endorse this strongly enough. The freak-out every time a series doesn't have a pure chalk outcome is truly bizarre
"BUT WHAT WILL THE RATINGS FOR THE NEXT SERIES BE?!?!?!?!?!?!?!" Do you own a professional sports franchise? If not, then who could possibly give the slightest fuck
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