Who’s the Stanley Cup favorite?
Dave Carney 2/11/2021
What’s on the table today?: By popular demand, more puck talk! Yesterday I broke down the THREE most popular ways to bet NHL or college hockey (Moneyline, Puckline, Total), and today we’ll look at another way to bet NHL hockey with our sights set on the FUTURES market.
Before we look at what the odds-makers are pegging as their favorites to win the 2021 Stanley Cup Championship we’ll start with a couple of things to consider. First, the NHL season has been shortened to just 56 games this season with conferences being eliminated and instead the league being broken into four divisions. The four divisions are the North, East, Central and West.
The second thing to keep in mind will be the very real possibility that the team you put money on in the FUTURES market could be drastically affected by COVID-19, as there have already been five NHL teams that have had to postpone their seasons due to the pandemic. The reason I want you to keep this in mind is simple; we saw what a shutdown to a dynamic team (in this case the NBA’s Bucks) can do – take what looks like an odds-on favorite to win it all and reduce them to rubble. That cannot be overlooked or overstated when looking to place a FUTURE bet on the Stanley Cup Champion.
**WHAT IS A FUTURE BET UNCLE DAVE?: A future bet is any wager placed on an event that WILL take place in the future. Simple. Today the FUTURE bet will center on the 2021 NHL Stanley Cup Finals.**
Thanks to our friends at BetMGM and Bovada (both online betting services) we’ve got the consensus betting lines for the 2021 Stanley Cup Finals, and once again the Vegas Golden Knights are getting a ton of action, as are the Colorado Avalanche and the Tampa Bay Lighting the reigning Cup champs.
As a guy from Vegas, I really like the Golden Knights, but as a betting fan even more, I like the Knights, Lightning and even the Maple Leafs more than I like the Avs. However, the odds-makers have COL as the consensus best-bet to win it all, which is interesting considering they’re in the same division as the Golden Knights, and as of the writing of this column, are two points off the Vegas pace. To me this means the Golden Knights are the value play if you’re looking to make a FUTURE bet on the Stanley Cup Finals.
Happy hunting, and always remember to shop around for the best number, even though in all of my research these odds are pretty universal right now.
- Colorado Avalanche: +700
- Vegas Golden Knights: +750
- Tampa Bay Lightning: +800
- Toronto Maple Leafs: +1100
- Boston Bruins: +1400
- Montreal Canadiens: +1400
- Philadelphia Flyers: +1600
- Washington Capitals: +2000
**For more info on TOTAL plays, OVER/UNDER, and PLUS/MINUS plays, TEASER cards and more, check back through some previous columns for detailed information**
REMEMBER – don’t bet based upon my recommendations. Do your research. Stay in your lane
