Predators Favored to Win the Stanley Cup

The Nashville Predators are one game away from dispatching their first-round playoff opponents as they return home with a 3-1 series lead to battle the Avalanche on Friday night. Let’s see what the industry’s top online sportsbooks are dealing on the Predators’ chances to win the West and the Stanley Cup.

A Dynasty in the Making?

When you think NHL hockey, there are many images conjured. Bobby Orr of the Big Bad Bruins and Guy Lafleur of Le Bleu-Blanc-Rouge of the 1970s, Mike Bossy of those invincible Islanders’ teams in the early ’80s followed by The Great One, Wayne Gretzky, and the Edmonton Oilers rounding out the decade. The torch was passed to Mario Lemieux and the Pittsburgh Penguins in the ’90s and we have had a smattering of mini-dynasties in Detroit and Chicago during the new millennium. Of course, Pittsburgh has returned to reach the pinnacle of the NHL mountain over the last few years, due in large part to the herculean talent of future Hall of Famer Sidney Crosby.

But all those teams have one thing in common. If you were born and raised in any of those locales and hockey was your thing, then you experienced something that no kid in Nashville ever has … pond hockey. That’s right; there are no sub-zero temperatures in Tennessee, and many old-school hockey dudes or dudettes will have a tough time wrapping their collective minds around the fact that a (fairly) warm-weather franchise could somehow evince the trappings of those legendary teams that have preceded them. And I’m not talking about a one-off Stanley Cup. I’m referring to domination over years that will rival what we have seen from the legendary cold-weather iterations of the past. Hockey is intrinsic to those areas and in fact, the French have a word for it – sine qua non – the essential condition. When I think of Nashville, I think of honky-tonks and pickup trucks. Hockey does not leap to mind. But after a Stanley Cup appearance last season and the best record in hockey this year, maybe, just maybe, things are changing. But if you decide to play pond hockey in Nashville, you better wear a life preserver.

Odds Favor Predators to Win the Cup

The Predators have the shortest odds on the board according to a quick check of the best online sportsbookshttps://www.sportsbookreview.com/best-sportsbooks/. As of this writing, the NHL odds board on virtually all of the major sportsbooks is reflecting Nashville as +205 to win the Western Conference and +400 to win the Stanley Cup. Despite the fact that the defending two-time champion Penguins are laying a beating on the Flyers in the first round and that the Cinderella story of the 2017-2018 season, the Vegas Golden Knights, have already put their first-round adversaries to sleep with a 4-0 sweep of the Los Angeles Kings, Nashville is the favorite. If you’ve got a hunch, bet a bunch. But before you give anyone your money, get on over to Sportsbook Review https://www.sportsbookreview.com/ and find out which sportsbooks are the best in the business.