It is not quite Leicester City winning the English Premier League, but the Vegas Golden Knights have the bookies shaking in their boots. Nobody knows what the exact liability is, but it is certainly well into the millions. Given that the expansion team is based in Las Vegas, plenty of locals bought $10 and $20 tickets on them to win the Stanley Cup either for fun, to keep the ticket as a souvenir or perhaps because a few savvy bettors actually saw something promising in the roster. Before the season began, players were being offered prices of 150-1 and even 200-1. That means that those $20 tickets are potentially worth $4,000 each. And there are bigger tickets out there too.
Here is a list of the people who will feel sorry for bookmakers if The Knights pull it off:
While they’ve been favored in their first two series, nobody expected them to wreck the LA Kings and San Jose Sharks the way they did, defeating the Kings 4 games to 0 and The Sharks 4-2. They still have two more series to win and they will likely be facing stronger teams. But Vegas would be the first expansion team to begin with a championship in the history of American sports.
There are several other interesting storylines. While hockey is the national sport, perhaps the national passion of Canada, no Canadian team has won a Stanley Cup in over 20 years. This year, The Winnipeg Jets are tasked with ending this sorry state of affairs. They could be the Knights’ opponents in the Western Conference Finals, and they are likely to be favored.
In the East, The Tampa Bay Lightning have already blistered Boston to earn a spot in the Conference Finals. This comes as little surprise, as the team was highly touted before the season began. It could be argued that they have the easiest path to the cup finals, since they now get to face the historic underachievers whom we are about to discuss.
The Washington Capitals were also highly touted, as always. Russian superstar Alexander Ovechkin leads a powerful roster. But the Capitals have a not so proud tradition of assembling teams that dominate the regular season, then fold in the playoffs like a DC politician being treated to an expensive dinner by a lobbyist. So in a particular way, it would be an upset if this excellent team were to finally win Lord Stanley’s Cup. The Caps have finally vanquished The Pittsburgh Penguins, who have recently owned Washington. Maybe this is the year that they finally exorcise decades of playoff demons.
It ain’t 200-1 but
William Hill has the Vegas Golden Knights to win The Stanley Cup at 10/3
05/14/18, 04:05:38 PM
