2021 Stanley Cup Winner: NHL Odds, Prediction
Here’s a look at the favourites to hoist the Cup on the NHL futures odds and a pick.
Stanley Cup Playoffs Format
The 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs were the most unusual in history because they took place with no fans in the Canadian bubbles of Toronto and Edmonton. This year’s postseason won’t be that wacky but is still out of the ordinary.
A reminder that the top four teams in each division made the playoffs. The first-place club faces the fourth-place club and second plays third. The winners advance in theory to a divisional championship round. At this point, the conference finals would normally take place, but there are no conferences this season as the league realigned temporarily to help limit travel.
There is a positive and negative for Canadian hockey fans in this setup. The positive is that one team from the country is guaranteed to make the final four. The negative is that, say, a Maple Leafs-Oilers Stanley Cup Final can’t happen.
In the final four, the teams will be seeded simply by their regular-season point total. The club with the most points would face the team with the least, and teams 2-3 would also play. Obviously, the top two teams would have home-ice advantage and then ditto the team with the most points in the Stanley Cup Final.
For the first two rounds, there will be no issues of USA teams crossing the Canadian border and vice versa, but that obviously will come into play in the final four and perhaps Stanley Cup Final. It is believed the Canadian government will provide a special waiver at that point, but if not said Canadian team would have to relocate to a U.S. city. The NHL has told the Canadian government that it needs an answer by June 1.
Stanley Cup Winner Odds
The Colorado Avalanche won the Presidents’ Trophy and thus would have home-ice advantage as long as they are alive, and they do have a terrific advantage in the thin air of Denver. The Avs are +493 second favourites to win their first Cup since 2001.
Colorado has a Vezina Trophy candidate in goal in Philipp Grubauer and three spectacular forwards in Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen and Gabriel Landeskog. One issue with backing the Avalanche to win the Cup: Many experts believe the second-best team in hockey is Vegas (+574 to win the Cup) and because the teams reside in the same West Division, only one can reach the final four. The Knights (+67) and Avs (+64) have the two best goal differentials in the league.
Thus, perhaps it’s smart to wager on a team to win the Cup that has the easiest road to the final four. One could argue that is Toronto (+466 Cup favourite), which has the longest Cup-winning drought in the NHL.
Obviously, injuries and potential COVID issues will play a major factor. The Tampa Bay Lightning are +716 to repeat, but what is the status of their two top forwards in Markham native Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov? The latter hasn’t played this season off hip surgery, and Stamkos has been out since April 8 due to injury. It does appear both will be ready for the playoffs. How ready?
The Bolts are spectacular in net with Vezina candidate Andrei Vasilevskiy. What they don’t have is a good No. 2 (former Leaf Curtis McElhinney), so if Vasilevskiy goes down/gets COVID, it’s over.
Tampa may not even beat Florida in Round 1 as the Panthers have home-ice advantage, although the Lightning are -135 series favourites. An excellent Carolina team (+800 to win Cup) likely would be waiting for the winner. The Hurricanes are Top 3 on the power play and the penalty kill.
The three teams in the playoffs yet to win a Cup are Florida, Nashville and Vegas.
Stanley Cup Winner Prediction
Toronto Maple Leafs over Colorado Avalanche if seeding works out right and they can’t meet in the final four.
#SIAStanleyCup
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Here’s an up-to-date look at our NHL Futures at Sports Interaction.
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