Preview and pick for Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals

The problem for the Montreal Canadiens in the first three games of the Stanley Cup Finals has been two-fold.

One, they have not been able to generate enough effective offense against the brilliant Andrei Vasilevskiy. And two, they haven't been able to halt the Tampa Bay Lightning's offensive onslaught.

And as BetOnline customers know, that covers just about everything.

So it is with all of this in mind that we venture into Game 4 of this series, which is scheduled for 8:05 PM ET at the Bell Centre in Montreal. All of the good things the Habs have done so far in this postseason are going to have to rise to the surface if they are to stay alive.

Certainly the criticism has come from those who considered Montreal's division (consisting only of teams north of the border) to be the weakest among the four in the NHL's revised setup, and who also considered the Canadiens the weakest playoff team in the field.

But after they got out of their own division, the Habs soundly defeated the Vegas Golden Knights, who were rightly judged to be one of the top contenders to win the Cup. So they did indeed earn their way here.

Well, as it turns out, unlike Vegas, which could not produce nearly enough meaningful oh-fense from its top lines, instead relying on defensemen for shots and goals, the Bolts have brought to the table an attack that is not only balanced, but explosive as well.

And it has been impossible for Carey Price, who was so incredible in the first three rounds of the playoffs, to stem the floodgates.

In the Stanley Cup Finals betting odds that have been established on this game by the folks at BetOnline, the Lightning, who are up three games to none, are favored to complete a sweep:

Tampa Bay Lightning -157
Montreal Canadiens +142

Lightning -1.5 Goals +165
Canadiens +1.5 Goals -190

Over 5 Goals -130
Under 5 Goals +118

Price came into this series as a Conn Smythe contender, but has not been able to deal with the quickness, pressure and shot-making of the Tampa Bay offense, as he has registered just a .835 save percentage. And the Lightning's Vasilevskiy has completely stolen his thunder, if you'd pardon the pun.

Yes, we know there have been whispers about replacing Price with backup Jake Allen, who actually had a regular season that was as good, if not better than Price, but according to head coach Dominique Ducharme, "Carey's the guy playing on Monday. If people wonder who'll be in net, Carey will be in net. You can talk about one guy but it's about all of us. We have to be better in front of him."

By the way, Ducharme just returned three days ago from a bout with COVID and the isolation that goes with it. We guess the third time was not Ducharme. Or whatever.

The truth is, Montreal has actually had a lot of chances in this series. After all, they have outshot Tampa Bay 97-80 and they've been right there when it comes to High-Danger Scoring Chances (HDSC). There have just been a lot of plays that haven't been completed.

Montreal's top line of Cole Caufield, Nick Suzuki and Tyler Toffoli generated a 65% Expected Goal Percentage in close to fifteen minutes of action in Game 3. Could they get more time here? It's win or go home.

And if Price had a Herculean effort he could call upon, as he has done numerous times on the road to the Finals, this would be the spot for it.

The way we're looking at it, we're going to try to get something that resembles a value with this play, considering the set of circumstances.

So if you like Montreal - and we have to give them a fair chance here - perhaps the way to go is to take them at +205 in the three-way prop to win in regulation time. If you like Tampa Bay, you may want to be thinking in terms of Montreal pulling Price earlier than usual with time running out, which opens up probably a greater possibility of an empty net goal.

The odds on the Lightning winning by more than one goal are +165 at BetOnline, where they will continue to have props on the Stanley Cup Finals, if it happens to go another game, plus all the odds you're looking for in the NBA Finals, PLUS Odds Boosters, which offers greatly enhanced payouts on pre-selected parlays, every day!