Of course.
The No. 6 seed from the Eastern Conference against the No. 8 seed from the Western Conference in the 2012 Stanley Cup Finals. Just as we all expected, right?
ViewFromVegas' Dave Tuley said the odds of that happening was 109-to-1, so if anyone tells you they had the New Jersey Devils meeting the Los Angeles Kings to meet in the end, tell them to go fly a kite.
Anyone claiming they had the Devils or Kings winning hockey’s Holy Grail must be a die-hard fan of one of those teams because no experts tabbed either two to get here even after they both made the playoffs.
With the two top markets in the United States participating, NBC has to be absolutely thrilled with this matchup, and I expect the ratings to be superb.
To no one’s surprise, hot goalies and defense are the reason that both these teams have advanced to this Stanley Cup Finals.
Let’s look at the particulars for both sides heading in with opening odds for the series coming from the LVH SuperBook here in sunny Sin City.
STANLEY CUP FINALS OPENING SERIES PRICE: Kings -160, Devils +140
Because they’re the higher of the two seeds remaining and had the better regular season record (48-28-6), the Devils have the home-ice advantage in the 2-2-1-1-1 best-of-seven series.
Prudential Center in Newark is the site of Game 1 on Wednesday night (8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT NBC, CBC, RDS), and I expect a tight-checking, low-scoring affair in the opener. The LVH SuperBook opened the Kings as -120 favorites and the total at 4½ goals (which it will likely be for all the games).
New Jersey heads into the Stanley Cup Finals after playing 18 games in the NHL Playoffs while Los Angeles took just 14 games to get to this point.
The Devils—winners of three Stanley Cups, the last in 2002-03—were tops in the league...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Los Angeles Kings
