P.K. Subban thinks he knows who will win the Stanley Cup

The former blue-liner made the call via his own social media account, with RDS picking up the post and amplifying it to a massive French-speaking audience just hours before Montreal's playoff opener against Tampa Bay.

Timing is everything in hockey. And dropping a Cup pick the night before Round 1 puck drop? That's either supreme confidence or very good theatre.

Subban played six seasons in a Canadiens uniform and knows what that market feels like under playoff pressure. His prediction isn't some random media take. It'll land differently in Montreal.

The Canadiens finished 48-24-10 this season, 106 points, sixth overall in the league. Martin St-Louis's group went 7-3 in their last 10 regular-season games entering the playoffs.

Cole Caufield finished with 51 goals and 88 points. Nick Suzuki put up 101 points. Those aren't pretender numbers.

The Lightning won't make this easy. Tampa finished 50-26-6, also at 106 points, ranked fifth overall. Jon Cooper's team averaged 3.5 goals per game and allowed just 2.8.

Nikita Kucherov posted 130 points this season. He is the single biggest threat in this series, full stop.

But Tampa is going into the playoffs without Victor Hedman, who is out for the season. Losing your franchise defenseman before Game 1 is like pulling an engine from a race car and expecting to keep up.

The two teams split their four regular-season matchups. Montreal won the last two, including a 4-1 win at Tampa on March 31 and a 2-1 win at home on April 9.

Momentum belongs to the Canadiens heading into Sunday night's Game 1 at Amalie Arena.

Jacob Fowler went 9-6 with a .908 save percentage in 17 appearances this season. Jakub Dobes posted a .901 over 43 starts. The goaltending competition will be watched closely as the series unfolds.

Andrei Vasilevskiy finished at .910 for Tampa. When his back-end is healthy, he's a difference-maker. The Hedman absence could force him to face a lot more quality shots than usual.

Subban's pick is bold. Maybe too bold. But the Canadiens are a legitimate team, and this series is genuinely competitive. Whether they can get through Tampa, and then whoever survives elsewhere, is the question nobody can answer from a couch in April.

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