Yisman 2016 STANLEY CUP ODDS Team Odds Washington Capitals +400 Los Angeles Kings +650 Chicago Blackhawks +700 Anaheim Ducks +750 Dallas Stars +1000 San Jose Sharks +1200 St. Louis Blues +1400 New York Rangers +1400 Tampa Bay Lightning +1800 Boston Bruins +1800 Pittsburgh Penguins +1800 Florida Panthers +1800 Nashville Predators +2500 New York Islanders +2800 Philadelphia Flyers +4000 Detroit Red Wings +4000 I'd have the Blues at #2 right now, 4 shutouts in a row...they're peaking, Bolts should be ahead of Rangers
I'll post a vbookie event at the end of the regular season I'd try these: Los Angeles Kings +650 Chicago Blackhawks +700 Anaheim Ducks +750 St. Louis Blues +1400 along with Nashville and Florida
The 2nd best East team is the Rangers at 8? That scares me too much. Also scares me that the Caps have 8 games left and literally just need 1 point to clinch the President's Trophy. Hope they can stay at an even pace and not fall off before the playoffs. Sounds odd, but that 8 seed will have played playoff hockey for a couple of months, while the Caps have been coasting for a couple of months. The Blackhawks have been bad lately, but they weren't even a good team last year and won the Cup. So never count them out. I like the Kings and Blues myself. Pittsburgh seems to be peaking at the right time too. Rangers-Pens will be a good Round 1. More competitive than last year. Even though I think every game was a 1 goal game last year. Or most of them.
The West is gonna be a dogfight this year. Wouldn't shock me if any team other than the Wild represented that conference in the Finals , although I could see them knocking off the Stars in the 1st round if they matchup with them. As for the East , the Caps should be hoping like hell Detroit gets that 8th seed. Their defense has become a joke.
Agreed. I think Holtby is close to Brodeur's single season win record too, so I am sure he wants to play, but I would have no problem with him resting. 8 games left. I would start him 4 at most. I was thinking that too when I saw the Pens-Wings game yesterday. I wouldn't mind playing them Round 1. More likely the Flyers though, and they will be a tough out. Not a great team, but they are pretty good, and play rivals well.
Stars or Kings will represent the West, both teams have skill on every line, nearly impossible to match up with them, they come at you fast and furious. The east, sorry to say Dark Night, will not be the Caps, the core of that group still likes to play touch hockey, they are not physical enough. It's going to be whoever plays the best defense, looks like the Bruins will represent the East.
I dont think the Stars have the goaltending to get there. They really should've gotten someone at the deadline to upgrade over Lehtonen/Niemi. Id like the Ducks, Blues or Sharks to get there over them cause all have similar depth and much better goalies. Bruins are a longshot but have proven to be successful come playoff time. Rask hasnt played as well this year as in the past though. If you're confident in a Stars/Bruins matchup then bet that all day. Could get some seriously good odds. East is really the Caps to lose. Every other team in the East has serious flaws. Only thing that could take them out IMO is a goalie like Lundqvist, Fleury or Bishop getting insanely hot for a series.
I am curious as to why you think the Bruins of all teams would represent the East? I could buy the Caps not making it, but hard to believe the Bruins would. They just aren't that good. Rangers, Penguins, Lightning, Panthers, I could believe maybe they would represent the East. Boston isn't even assured a playoff spot right now.
As I've said before, I'm confident it won't be the Stars coming out of the West. I don't think they even get to the conference finals. I might pick Washington to come out of the East just because the East is so weak. All the top Cup contenders are out West, aside from Washington. The Metropolitan is especially weak. Islanders/Philly are mediocre, Rangers/Pittsburgh are above average but not that good, NJ/CAR/Columbus are pretty bad. The threat probably comes from the Atlantic. Florida/TB/Boston are all good, IMO, but not nearly as good as Washington. Detroit is not good, I wouldn't even necessarily pick them over Ottawa if they played them in a series.
I would like to first of all say that if my Isles don't make it, nothing against anyone else, but I would like the Caps to win it all because I want ovechkin to win a cup, he is my favorite hockey player period! That being said, what has killed the caps in the past is the play of their core players, backstrom and johansen are Crosby type of forwards, they shy away from any physical contact. Playoff hockey ramps up the physical portion of hockey, ovechkin can do it all, but I think he is the only one on that team that can physically elevate his game come playoff time. Every team in the east is close with the exception of the Caps, come the playoffs I believe this year that Boston has the style that is needed to win against the rest of the east.
Yis, I will respectfully disagree with the Dallas statement, I think you are not giving them enough credit, even though I think it will be either the Kings or Dallas. I'm not trying to hedge my bets here, it's just that the Stars have been through the gauntlet of the west as the season went on and instead of crumbling they came out of it a stronger team.
You get it whip, your comment about the east teams having serious flaws is the reason why I pick Boston, they started off very slow this year, but quietly have gotten themselves in playoff position. I know they have struggled a bit lately, but I believe they will get in and once they do its a new season one in wich they have shown they can be very productive.
Fair enough. Ya never know. Not many people this time last year thought Tampa would be the team representing the East in the finals. Throw the seeds out the window once the playoffs start. Id give Boston a pretty decent chance in either matchup against Florida or Tampa and then who knows. Best thing to happen to any team come playoff time is to get a little lucky , and that could happen with any team.
Stars will find the playoffs are different. In the regular season, of course they've been good, but I'm not basing my opinion purely off the regular season. They've had Chicago's number this season. I wouldn't bet on that continuing if they meet in the playoffs. Dallas has shaky defense, shaky goaltending, and shaky coaching, along with the Seguin injury to deal with.
