Twenty-four teams will have a chance to win the Stanley Cup when -- if -- play resumes in the NHL this summer.
Only one of them finished the regular season with a .500 record.
That would be Montreal, which placed 12th in the Eastern Conference and will face the Penguins in a best-of-five qualifying round after going 31-31-9 before play was suspended March 12 because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Here's what some of the statistics the Canadiens generated during the regular season suggest we can expect to see during their play-in round against the Penguins:
• Scoring first will matter -- if the Penguins do it. Montreal won just 55.3 percent of its games when it opened the scoring; the Penguins won 78.1 percent of theirs when the took a 1-0 lead. What's more, the Penguins won 40.5 percent of their games when allowing the first goal, while the Canadiens won just 30.9 percent of theirs when that happened.
• The Canadiens don't have a game-breaking goal-scorer. Tomas Tatar and Brendan Gallagher tied for the team lead with 22. That's just two more than Jake Guentzel scored for the Penguins in 39 games before suffering a shoulder injury forced him to miss the rest of the regular season.
• Montreal is only an average threat to score while shorthanded. But if it does get a goal with a player is in the penalty box, chances are Joel Armia will score it; he had half of Montreal's six shorthanded goals.
• The Canadiens are quite successful in shootouts -- which don't exist in the playoffs. Four of Montreal's 31 victories came after overtime. Only five clubs won more shootouts this season.
• Montreal lacks discipline, or perhaps basic math skills. It was assessed 13 bench minors, which includes too-many-men infractions, which was the fourth-most in the league.
• Strong starts are a Montreal staple, but strong finishes are not. The Canadiens outscored their opponents, 69-55 in the first period, but were outscored, 81-63, in the third.
• Canadiens goalie Carey Price is capable of almost singlehandedly stealing a series. You wouldn't necessarily guess that from his stats this winter, though, as he tied for 31st in the league goals-against average (2.79) and save percentage (.909).
• Montreal was just 19-15-3 when it had a day between games, which is expected to be the schedule during the qualifying round. The Penguins were 21-8-1.
• The Penguins' penalty-killers might not be pressed into service very often during the series, because Montreal drew a league-low average of 3.02 penalties per game.
• The Canadiens aren't shy about throwing pucks at the net. They averaged 34.1 shots on goal per game, more than any NHL team except Vegas (34.5).
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