Golden Knights Have Best Odds to Win Stanley Cup Entering 2020 NHL Playoffs
By Robert Duff in NHL Hockey
Updated: March 18, 2021 at 7:50 am EDTPublished:
- The Vegas Golden Knights are the +450 favorites to win the 2020 Stanley Cup
- The Tampa Bay Lightning (+500) and Colorado Avalanche (+600) are other top contenders.
- Which team is the best bet heading into the first round?
When they joined the NHL as an expansion team for the 2017-18 season, the Vegas Golden Knights made plenty of history.
They won more games (51) and collected more points (109) than any first-year team in league history. Vegas not only got to the Stanley Cup final, the Golden Knights won a game. No team had ever done that during their inaugural NHL campaign.
About the only thing they didn’t accomplish was hoisting Lord Stanley’s mug.
That could be about to change.
As the NHL prepares to get the first round of the playoffs underway, the Golden Knights are the +450 favorites in the 2020 Stanley Cup odds.
2020 NHL Stanley Cup Odds
| Team | Odds at Caesars |
|---|---|
| Vegas Golden Knights | +450 |
| Tampa Bay Lightning | +500 |
| Boston Bruins | +600 |
| Colorado Avalanche | +600 |
| Philadelphia Flyers | +900 |
| St. Louis Blues | +900 |
| Washington Capitals | +1400 |
| Dallas Stars | +1500 |
| Carolina Hurricanes | +2000 |
| Calgary Flames | +2500 |
| Vancouver Canucks | +2500 |
| Chicago Blackhawks | +3000 |
| New York Islanders | +3000 |
| Arizona Coyotes | +3200 |
| Montreal Canadiens | +4000 |
| Columbus Blue Jackets | +4200 |
Odds as of Aug. 11th.
Vegas earned the Western Conference’s top seed by going 3-0 in the round-robin portion of the NHL’s postseason qualifiers, a unique format required by the COVID-19 hiatus. The Golden Knights will face the 12th-seeded Chicago Blackhawks in the conference quarter-finals.
The Knights Are Golden
A perfect 3-0 slate during round-robin play. Fifteen goals deposited into enemy nets. A 27.2% (3-of-11) power play:Â What’s not to like about how Vegas performed during the round robin? The Golden Knights are a powerful team from top to bottom.
On Marc-Andre Fleury and Robin Lehner:
"I think there’s a good relationship between the two goaltenders and they’re both available and willing to help this team win."
— x-Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) August 10, 2020
There’s depth at forward, and a sturdy sextet along the blueline. They even go two-deep in goal.
Robin Lehner figures to get the nod to start against the Blackhawks, the team that dealt him to Vegas. Three-time Stanley Cup winner Marc-Andre Fleury is ready to step in at a moment’s notice.
The Max Factor
Vegas averaged five goals per game in the round robin without their top scorer. Max Pacioretty, who led the Golden Knights with 32 goals and 66 points this season, missed all three games due to a minor injury he suffered in training camp.
ARE YOU ‘RETTY FOR PLAYOFF PATCH????? 🕹 pic.twitter.com/ehOntPMb2u
— x-Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) August 10, 2020
However, he’s good to go for the first-round series with the Chicago Blackhawks and will be in the lineup for Game 1 on Tuesday (Aug. 11).
Other Cup Contenders
One of these seasons, the Tampa Bay Lightning have to go all the way, right? Since 2015, they lost in the Cup final and have twice fallen in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference final. Is this the year Tampa Bay finally does it?
The Boston Bruins were the favorites to win the Cup at the COVID-19 pause to the season in mid-March. Something was amiss with Boston, though, during the Eastern Conference round robin, in which they went 0-3-0 against Philadelphia, Tampa, and Washington. Goalie Tuukka Rask is ailing and the Bruins face a tough opening test against the Carolina Hurricanes.
Likewise, the defending Cup champion St. Louis Blues also seemed to be missing an element during round-robin play. The Flyers are the top seed in the East and are 12-1 over their last 13 games.
Quick celly,
right back into the drill. 🤣 #GoAvsGo https://t.co/CFlAshFReb
— x – Colorado Avalanche (@Avalanche) August 10, 2020
The team to beat is in the West, however. The Colorado Avalanche may have lost their last round-robin game to Vegas but the Avs won their four previous meetings by a combined margin of 13 goals.
In the offseason, Colorado added valuable playoff bite in Nazem Kadri, Joonas Donskoi, and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare to a talented, emerging roster. The Avs have gone one step further each of the past two playoffs.
This time, Colorado will go all the way.
Pick: Colorado Avalanche (+600)
Sports Writer
An industry veteran, Bob literally taught the course on the history of sports at Elder College. He has worked as a Sports Columnist for Postmedia, appeared as a guest on several radio stations, was the Vice President of the Society For International Hockey Research in Ontario, and written 25 books.
