High drama is brewing in two of the Eastern Conference quarterfinal series. The Carolina Hurricanes came back from a 3-0 deficit in Game 2 against the N.Y. Islanders and won, 5-3. They tied the game with 2:15 remaining in the third period and then scored the game-winner just nine seconds later. That set a new NHL record for the quickest game-tying and winning goals in the third period of any playoff game, and it was just the seventh time in the history of the NHL that a team had tied and then won the game in the last three minutes of a postseason game. In Boston, coach Jim Montgomery’s commitment to maintaining a strict rotation between Jeremy Swayman and Linus Ullmark in goal has led to another postseason with second-guessing. Swayman stopped 35 shots in a dominant 5-1 Game 1 win over Toronto, while Ullmark still got 30 saves but saw the B’s drop Game 2, 3-2. Montgomery had refused to name the starter ahead of Game 2, and the distraction may lead to the Bruins bowing out of another postseason early. Ullmark won the Vezina Trophy as the NHL’s top goalie in 2022-23, and Swayman posted a 25-10-8 record, a .916 save percentage and a 2.53 GAA, numbers similar to Ullmark’s. We’ll see how both of these series progress. In the meantime, check out each playoff team’s Stanley Cup Odds and our thoughts about some of the other contenders.
Updated Odds Reveal Tight Race for the Championship | Stanley Cup Odds
- Carolina Hurricanes +400
- Edmonton Oilers +600
- N.Y. Rangers +600
- Florida Panthers +650
- Dallas Stars +1000
- Vegas Golden Knights +1000
- Colorado Avalanche +1200
- Vancouver Canucks +1200
- Winnipeg Jets +1200
- Boston Bruins +1400
- Toronto Maple Leafs +1400
- Tampa Bay Lightning +4000
- L.A. Kings +5000
- Nashville Predators +5000
- N.Y. Islanders +20000
- Washington Capitals +25000
Lines and Picks to Win with Stanley Cup Odds
Carolina Hurricanes
The Hurricanes got all the way to the East final last year despite not having Andrei Svechnikov available. This time around, he’s available, and the team added some scoring punch by bringing in Evgeny Kuznetsov and Jake Guentzel, both of whom already have their name on the Stanley Cup. Guentzel has 58 points in 58 career playoff games, and since the trade, he has notched 25 points in 17 contests. Goalie Frederik Andersen has been a wall in the net since coming back from blood clot treatment.
Dallas Stars
The Stars lost last year in the West final to Vegas – and the Golden Knights have already stolen Game 1 in Dallas this time around. The Stars have a ton of scoring depth, and they improved their defense at the trade deadline by bringing in Chris Tanev. Jake Oettinger had a terrific April in net, and the team needs him to find that solid play after a shaky start to this postseason. Vegas swept Dallas, 3-0, in the regular season series, so the Stars need to incorporate some mental toughness to go along with that talent on the roster.
N.Y. Rangers
The Rangers won the President’s Trophy, which often means that a team has peaked early and won’t win the Stanley Cup. However, the Rangers won both back in 1994 and look dangerous again. They have the third-ranked power play and penalty kill in the NHL, and they got career seasons from Artemi Panarin and Alexis Lafreniere. Their goaltender, Igor Shesterkin, is one of the league’s best.
Florida Panthers
The Panthers rolled to the Stanley Cup Final the hard way last year, knocking off three teams with higher seeds as they went through the East bracket. Matthew Tkachuk can score and bring physicality – although he did notch 14 fewer goals and 21 fewer points this season. Goalie Sergei Bobrovsky got red-hot in last year’s playoffs and already has two Vezina Trophies on the mantel. Sam Reinhart scored 50 goals, and Aleksander Barkov is strong on both ends of the ice.
Edmonton Oilers
It’s not often that a team changes coaches mid-season and then follows an upward trajectory into the playoffs, but the Oilers are doing it. Kris Knoblauch came on at midseason and led his team to instant improvement as the team reeled off a 16-game winning streak as part of its rise from the basement of the West. Zach Hyman scored 50 goals for a team that already had two dominant scorers in Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid, and Adam Henrique adds even more offensive depth.
Winnipeg Jets
The Winnipeg Jets have the Vezina Trophy favorite in net in Connor Hellebuyck. The addition of Sean Monahan at the trade deadline brought more offense. The team plays solid defense as a unit, and Gabriel Vilardi is the hot scorer with six goals in the last seven contests. They face Colorado in the first round, a team they dominated, and they also posted an eight-game winning streak near the end of the regular season. Hellebuyck has tended to blink in the postseason, though. Can he figure out how to deal with the added pressure this time around?
Boston Bruins
The Bruins won the President’s Trophy last year. Four of the last five teams to win the trophy have made it to the Stanley Cup Final – but not until the next season. If Jim Montgomery can figure out a goalie rotation, the team has plenty of offense with two elite scoring lines, the first keyed by David Pastrnak. The team added some grit at the trade deadline in Pat Maroon, whose name appears on the Cup three times. The power play did some damage in Game 1, but the team finished 3 for 32 in the last 12 games of the regular season.
Tampa Bay Lightning
The Lightning are always dangerous in the postseason, although the big contracts that some of their contributors from earlier postseason glory have earned have forced the team to make tough salary cap decisions. Nikita Kucherov did win the scoring title after posting 144 points, and he was one of three Lightning skaters, along with Steven Stamkos and Brayden Point, to hit th e40-goal mark. Anthony Duclair came over at the trade deadline and put up almost a point a game after arriving. The team is hopeful that defenseman Mikhail Sergachev will recover from his broken leg in time to return for the playoffs. And then there’s netminder Andrei Vasilevskiy, who comes alive in the postseason.
Vegas Golden Knights
The Golden Knights snuck into the playoffs with the last wild card in the West, but at the trade deadline, they brought in Anthony Mantha, Noah Hanifin and Tomas Hertl to bring depth on both ends of the ice. Jonathan Marchessault won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the MVP of the playoffs last year, and if he hadn’t won it, his teammate Jack Eichel would have been a strong candidate as well. The Golden Knights are likely to play without home-ice advantage through the entire playoffs, if they keep advancing, but they have the playoff experience to pull it off.
Vancouver Canucks
The Canucks have goalie Thatcher Demko healthy and fresh for a playoff run. Rick Tocchet is projected to win coach of the year, and the team has plenty of scoring depth, with Brock Boeser, J.T. Miller, Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes all contributing. That group all played well the last time the Canucks made the postseason, back in 2020. Elias Lindholm came over at the trade deadline and started strong but then had just two points over a 14-game stretch. In recent play, though, things have improved.
Colorado Avalanche
The Avalanche have all kinds of offensive talent in Nathan Mackinnon, Cale Makar, Mikko Rantanen and a host of other scorers. The problems come in net as Alexandar Goergiev finished the regular season permitting at least four goals in six of his last eight contests. Forward Jonathan Drouin had 19 goals and 56 points on the season but will miss the first round after going down in the regular season finale with a lower-body injury.
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2024 NHL Updated Stanley Cup Odds at Week 18
The Colorado Avalanche lost All-Star Nathan MacKinnon in the third period during the team’s 4-0 loss to the Florida Panthers on Saturday. MacKinnon hit his chin on the ice during a headfirst fall. He skated to the bench without help, but it wasn’t long before he walked down the tunnel and did not come back. The game was a slog, as the Avs sent 35 shots at Sergei Bobrovsky but could not light the lamp. He remains questionable at this point; if you plan on including Colorado in your NHL betting, check his status before locking in your wagers. Let’s look at each team’s chances of winning the Stanley Cup as well as some thoughts about the top contenders.
NHL Updated Stanley Cup Odds to Win at Week 18
- Edmonton Oilers +810
- Boston Bruins +910
- Dallas Stars +1000
- Colorado Avalanche +1000
- Florida Panthers +1025
- Vancouver Canucks +1050
- Carolina Hurricanes 1050
- New York Rangers +1075
- Vegas Golden Knights +1225
- Winnipeg Jets +1350
- Toronto Maple Leafs +1550
- Los Angles Kings +1875
- Tampa Bay Lightning +2200
- New Jersey Devils +2500
- Detroit Red Wings +3600
- Philadelphia Flyers +3800
- Pittsburgh Penguins +4000
- N.Y. Islanders +5400
- Calgary Flames +6600
- Nashville Predators +7500
- Seattle Kraken +7500
- St. Louis Blues +950
- Washington Capitals +11000
- Minnesota Wild +12000
- Arizona Coyotes +16000
- Ottawa Senators +26000
- Buffalo Sabres +28000
- Montreal Canadiens +38000
- Columbus Blue Jackets +70000
- Anaheim Ducks +100000
- Chicago Blackhawks +30000
- San Jose Sharks +30000
The Boston Bruins bounced back from an ugly week to rout the Vancouver Canucks, only allowing 17 shots on net in a 4-0 shutout by Linus Ullmark. The ugliness included a 4-1 home loss to Calgary and a 4-0 shutout loss to Washington. While the B’s lead the East, and these issues might just need some ironing out, keep an eye on Boston to see if those ugly games are just a blip.
The Vancouver Canucks have played four of five on an East Coast swing, beating Carolina and Washington while losing to Boston and Detroit. Their win over Washington included an impressive comeback, and if Vancouver can get two more points against the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday night, the road trip will be a success.
The Florida Panthers have won two of three after the All-Star break – and 15 of 20 since December 23. Their last two games included a 4-2 win over Washington and a 4-0 beating of the Avalanche. Carter Verhaeghe and Matthew Tkachuk have turned into an offensive dynamo, and Sam Reinhart and Sasha Barkov are also putting up numbers at video-game speed. This will be a dangerous team in terms of offense, but it will be interesting to see how that works once the playoffs start and the defenses ramp up their effort.
The Edmonton Oilers finally lost last Tuesday, ending a 16-game winning streak that dated back to December 19. The Oilers would split their next two games, beating Anaheim, 5-3, before losing to the Kings, getting shut out by David Rittich. The Oil still have considerable momentum as the team approaches the second half looking to chase the President’s Trophy.
The Dallas Stars have won five of six and now lead the Central Division with a 32-14-6 record, now ahead of Colorado by two points with a game in hand. Along with Winnipeg, these teams make for a grueling trio atop the division, and the winner will benefit from not having to play one of the other sides in the first round of the playoffs. Thomas Harley has emerged as a monster defenseman, and Matt Duchene, Mason Marchment, and Tyler Seguin are a steady scoring line.
The New York Rangers used the All-Star break well. The Blueshirts had been foundering before the rest despite a 7-2 tattooing of the Ottawa Senators to end the first half, and they came out to beat Colorado in overtime, Tampa Bay, and Chicago in overtime. They have a 33-16-3 record and lead Carolina by four points in the Metropolitan. With Jonathan Quick and his three-Stanley Cup resume, the Rangers have a solid alternative to Igor Shesterkin in net, which means they can give Shesterkin the rest he needs to be fresh in the playoffs.
2023 Stanley Cup Updated Odds to Win
NHL Stanley Cup 2023 Updated Odds & Analysis To Win The Title
The Boston Bruins continue to hum along in 2022-23, having collected 81.37% of their possible points this season. In the NHL, teams get two points in the standings for a win in regulation, overtime or shootout, and they get a point if they lose in overtime or in a shootout. David Pastrnak is headed to a 100+ point season of his own, and Linus Ullmark is leading in the race for the Vezina Trophy, given to the league’s top goaltender. The Bruins don’t even have the services of Jake DeBrusk right now, who went down during the Winter Classic with a lower-body injury. He was averaging 0.83 points per game before the injury – and he’s about to return. Do the Bruins have an even higher gear for their offense? We will see. As Week 19 of the regular season begins, let’s look at the latest Stanley Cup odds for each team to hoist the Title at the end of the postseason as well as some thoughts on some of the other contenders.
| Team | Odds |
|---|---|
| Boston Bruins | +500 |
| Carolina Hurricanes | +650 |
| Colorado Avalanche | +700 |
| Toronto Maple Leafs | +1000 |
| Tampa Bay Lightning | +1200 |
| N.Y. Rangers, Edmonton Oilers | +1400 |
| Dallas Stars, New Jersey Devils, Vegas Golden Knights | +1500 |
| Calgary Flames, Minnesota Wild | +2100 |
| Pittsburgh Penguins | +2600 |
| L.A. Kings | +2800 |
| Winnipeg Jets | +3000 |
| Seattle Kraken | +3200 |
| Washington Capitals | +3700 |
| Florida Panthers | +4000 |
| N.Y. Islanders | +5500 |
| Nashville Predators | +8000 |
| Buffalo Sabres, St. Louis Blues | +13000 |
| Ottawa Senators, Vancouver Canucks, Detroit Red Wings, San Jose Sharks, Philadelphia Flyers, Montreal Canadiens, Columbus Blue Jackets, Anaheim Ducks, Arizona Coyotes, Chicago Blackhawks | +50000 |
The New Jersey Devils still offer a lot of value on the odds table, perhaps because it’s been so long since they’ve been competitive. You can take advantage of that imbalance, and remember that the Devils have Luke Hughes waiting in the wings. The Devils drafted him in the first round, and a lot of picks out of college are starting to go to the pro ranks after their sophomore year. Hughes plays for the Michigan Wolverines and has 32 points in 28 games as a defenseman. If he decides to leave school and head to the pros, he could be another offensively minded defenseman who arrives just in time to make an impact on the playoffs.
The Toronto Maple Leafs have another promising young defenseman who has shown he can jump into the offense in Connor Timmins. He hasn’t played many games, but he has already to risen to fifth among defensemen on the team in points, with a dozen in 18 games since he came to Canada from a trade with Arizona. The Leafs already extended him for two years on a $2.2 million contract, so look for his name to keep popping up as the playoffs approach.
One problem with the Dallas Stars is their tendency to take a lead into the third period and then find themselves either in overtime or on the wrong end of a regulation comeback. However, Jason Robertson has emerged as an elite scorer, with a real shot at tallying 50 goals and 50 assists, and a projected point total of 106. If he can hit these numbers, he would become just the fifth Star/North Star to have 50 or more goals and the first Dallas Star ever to score 100 points in a season. But can the defense help them out when they are needed?
Tampa Bay is getting solid work out of Brandon Hagel this season. Coming in, he had 68 career points, and he is projected to get 31 goals and 67 points this season. He’s also coming back to the Lightning next year on the cheap, still on the books for another year at $1.5 million.
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