Vegas on Preds

Vegas has spoken and have ranked the Predators the 18th most likely team to win the Stanley Cup this year out of the 30 team league. 30/1 odds.

Of course, the Red Wings are roughly 7.5 times more likely to win the Cup than the Preds, but the good news is that they are effectively picking us to make the playoffs (we're in a 3 way tie for 7-9th most-likely-to-win in the West) and again finish second in the division.

I find it very interesting that they have given the Preds better odds than Chicago and Tampa Bay, both of which did some major retooling in the offseason and i personally would have to handicap at least at the Predators level, especially Chicago. I'm also a little surprised to be put at parity with Calgary, which to me looked to have a strong off-season and looks loaded to at least make a lot of noise this season.

Probably the most surprising to me about this list is that the East is given much better odds overall (though of course no one approaches the Wings odds). 10 of the top 16 odds are given to teams from the East. I just really find it odd that they would give Carolina odds that good, or teams like Calgary odds that low. On a team-by-team basis nothing seems too far off, but most of the talk i hear is that the West is deeper and stronger than the East (though the gap is closing), but this chart doesn't appear to support that theory.

We shall see...

	Team	Odds
1	Detroit Red Wings	4/1
2	Pittsburgh Penguins	11/2
3	San Jose Sharks	10/1
4	Montreal Canadiens	10/1
5	Dallas Stars	12/1
6	Anaheim Ducks	12/1
7	New York Rangers	15/1
8	Ottawa Senators	15/1
9	Philadelphia Flyers	15/1
10	Washington Capitals	18/1
11	New Jersey Devils	20/1
12	Carolina Hurricanes	22/1
13	Minnesota Wild	22/1
14	Colorado Avalanche	25/1
15	Boston Bruins	30/1
16	Buffalo Sabres	30/1
17	Calgary Flames	30/1
18	Nashville Predators	30/1
19	Vancouver Canucks	30/1
20	Chicago Blackhawks	35/1
21	Toronto Maple Leafs	40/1
22	Tampa Bay Lightning	45/1
23	Edmonton Oilers	50/1
24	Florida Panthers	50/1
25	Atlanta Thrashers	60/1
26	St. Louis Blues	60/1
27	New York Islanders	75/1
28	Phoenix Coyotes	75/1
29	Columbus Blue Jackets	75/1
30	Los Angeles Kings	100/1