It started out like any other Thursday night. I booed a guy on the street wearing an Auston Mathews jersey, got pulled over by the police in my car for a rolling stop (allegedly), and the Montreal Canadiens took a 1-0 series lead against the heavily favored Toronto Maple Leafs.
The feelings were nothing but positive, but the numbers were … odd. It’s like someone switched the two teams. During the regular season, Montreal had been a Corsi behemoth, dominating shot attempts. According to Natural Stat Trick, at five-on-five, Montreal had the second-best Corsi-for percentage in the league.