Sports Betting
Oddsmakers Sleep on Long Shots; Updated Cup Odds Mean Values

All right, let’s be bluntly honest. The sportsbooks don’t know hockey, and they don’t need to. The NFL reigns supreme in TV viewership, merch, and betting. For those of us who are hockey nuts, it’s sad, but more people will remember the coming Super Bowl mayonnaise commercial than the Four Nations Face-Off.
So it goes, but that also means while oddsmakers are busy taking millions on the big game’s coin toss, the Stanley Cup odds are a bit behind the curve. And that means value for savvy bettors if you don’t mind a long shot or three.
The Boston Bruins’ somewhat surprising fall over the past month has mirrored that of their fellow stale black-and-gold rival, the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Bruins have fallen to +3500 on the FanDuel NHL odds board, which means a 35-1 shot to win the Cup. We’ll pass on that. Pittsburgh has plummeted to a 200-1 shot, and that’s probably still too good.
How the mighty have fallen.
However, there are a bunch of young teams that are unexpectedly in the playoff race. Who knows, could a young and dumb team that doesn’t know any better actually come through? If you’re an adventurous sort,
The Montreal Canadiens are also a 200-1 shot for the Cup and 110-1 for the Eastern Conference crown known as the Prince of Wales Trophy. They’re currently only two points out of a playoff spot and playing increasingly well this season.
The Detroit Red Wings were left for dead after a disastrous start under coach Derek Lalonde. However, since turning to Todd McLellan, Detroit has surged into a wild-card spot. They’re going off at +11000 (110-1) for the East and 200-1 for the Stanley Cup.
If more realistic underdogs are your thing, the stout Winnipeg Jets with Vezina Trophy favorite Connor Hellebuyck are still on the board at 17-1 (+1700), and the quickly revamped Washington Capitals, who might well breeze through the cupcake Metro Division are also +1700.
Of course, Washington will likely need to dispatch the Carolina Hurricanes, who went all in to acquire Mikko Rantanen and Taylor Hall. The Hurricanes are a vastly overpriced +600 favorite to win the Cup despite their continued regular-season dominance with the uptempo system and lack of playoff success.
We’re not going near the Hurricanes at those odds.
The Calgary Flames made a little splash in the NHL trade waters Thursday when they swiped Joel Farabee and Morgan Frost from Philadelphia for magic beans known as pending UFA Andrei Kuzmenko and fourth-liner Jacob Pelletier. Calgary has been a surprise all season, but they have the necessary ingredients to be a tough—very tough—out in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Oddsmakers have missed Calgary’s resurgence, and they’re on the FanDuel Stanley Cup wall at an astounding +15000. Before the oddsmakers awake from the Super Bowl exhaustion, some of the long shots might be worth a small pocket grab.