The Vegas Golden Knights entered the Stanley Cup semifinals as an overwhelming favourite to beat the Montreal Canadiens.

They certainly delivered on that expectation in Game 1.

The Golden Knights beat Montreal 4-1 in front of a packed house at T-Mobile Arena in the opener of their best-of-seven series.

Vegas closed at -475 to win the series and advance to the Stanley Cup Final.

After they took Game 1, the Golden Knights are now -1000 to win the series and advance – a 90.9 per cent implied probability. 

Here is the Morning Coffee for Tuesday June 15, 2021.

Knights strike first in Stanley Cup semifinal

While the Golden Knights never really looked in danger of losing Game 1, a solid performance from Marc-Andre Fleury prevented it from being a closer game.

Fleury made 28 saves to extend his personal playoff win streak to five in a row. He’s allowed two goals or less in all but one of those victories.

Oddsmakers have been paying close attention to the success that the Sorel, Que., native has had in these playoffs.

Fleury opened the playoffs at +1500 to win the Conn Smythe Trophy. He’s now the consensus favourite to win that award at +125.

Meanwhile, the score could have also been more lopsided if it wasn’t for a few brilliant saves for Carey Price, including a point-blank glove stop on Mark Stone off the rush that was one of his best of the playoffs so far.  

The fact that Price played well but still conceded four goals should be worrisome, especially considering the Stone line wasn’t able to get on the board.

Vegas became just the second NHL team ever to have three different defencemen score in a Stanley Cup semifinal game.

Their defence core outshot the Canadiens’ defence by a combined 18-0 margin in the win.

Shea Theodore, Alec Martinez and Nick Holden all found the back of the net.

Montreal will have to make an adjustment to limit the number of quality chances that defence core gets moving forward in order to have any shot at making this series competitive.

They’ll also need rookie Cole Caufield to continue to play the way he did last night.

Caufield scored his first career playoff goal on the power play and had a couple more scoring chances in the loss.

The Golden Knights are -260 to win Game 2 – the comeback on the Habs is +230.

Clippers right back in it again

The Los Angeles Clippers were counted out for the second time in these playoffs after falling behind 2-0 to the Utah Jazz in their second-round series.

After a 118-104 win as a five-point favourite on Monday night, they’re right back in it tied 2-2 in the best-of-seven.

Kawhi Leonard and Paul George scored 31 points each in Monday night’s win.

Los Angeles led by double digits for the final 43 minutes and 45 seconds of the game, as Utah couldn’t do anything to carve into that gap.

With the win, the Clippers moved from +160 to +110 to win the series. More importantly, they went from +900 to +550 to win the NBA championship.

In a year in which injuries have blown the title picture wide open, it never made sense to completely write off the Clippers. Now they’re right back in it.

Meanwhile, Trae Young scored a game-high 25 points and recorded a career-best 18 assists as the Atlanta Hawks (+130) rallied from down 18 points to beat the Philadelphia 76ers 103-100 to even up their best-of-seven series at 2-2.

The Hawks were previously 0-41 when trailing by 18 points or more over the last 25 seasons.

Atlanta remains the biggest NBA championship long shot of the seven remaining teams at +4000.

However, it’s worth pointing out that Philadelphia now has the second-longest odds to win the title at +700.

Germany, France set for Euro 2020 showdown

Slovakia (+475) was the big winner at Euro 2020 on Monday, upsetting 10-man Poland 2-1 after Grzegorz Krychowiak was shown the first red card at this year’s tournament.

It was just their second Euro win as an independent nation.

Meanwhile, Patrik Schick scored twice as the Czech Republic (+165) beat Scotland 2-0, including an early candidate for goal of the tournament from 54 yards out.

Teams that score first improved to 8-0-1 at Euro 2020.

Spain settled for a scoreless draw with Sweden – just the second draw in the first 10 matches of the tournament.

Now the focus shifts to Group F, which is by far the toughest in the tournament.

France is the defending World Cup champion, Portugal is the defending Euro Cup champion, and Germany is a perennial contender.

France and Germany will meet in the most highly anticipated match of the tournament so far, with both teams among the top four choices to win the title.

While France is the betting favourite to win both the group and the title, ESPN’s Soccer Power Index gives Germany the best chance in Group F to advance to the knockout stage.

Both teams are expected to move on. However, today’s showdown could reset expectations for both teams depending on the result.

A new favourite to win NL MVP

There is a new betting favourite to win National League MVP.

Jacob deGrom, who set the record for the lowest ERA (0.56) in a pitcher’s first 10 starts of a season, is now +200 to win NL MVP.

No other pitcher has shorter than 100-to-1 odds.

Only two pitchers in the Wild Card Era have ever won the MVP award.

Justin Verlander won MVP with a 2.40 ERA, 0.92 WHIP and an 8.6 WAR in 2011. Clayton Kershaw won it in 2014 with a 1.77 ERA, 0.86 WHIP and a 7.7 WAR.

As for deGrom, he owns a 0.56 ERA, 0.53 WHIP and a 9.4 WAR.

The New York Mets’ ace will make his next start against the Chicago Cubs on Wednesday.

CFL announces return

The Canadian Football League announced it will make its return on Aug. 5.

The league’s board of governors voted unanimously on a 14-game regular season schedule.

The Grey Cup is scheduled for Dec. 12 in Hamilton.

In case you’re wondering, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats are the favourite to win the Grey Cup in their own barn at +300.

The Saskatchewan Roughriders (+400), Calgary Stampeders (+450) and Winnipeg Blue Bombers (+500) round out the list of the top choices to win the Grey Cup.