The NHL season seems to sneak up on sports fans every year. With the NFL and College Football fully going and the baseball playoffs digging in, it becomes easy to overlook the start of the hockey season. For sports bettors that means missing out on some futures plays if you aren't cognizant of the beginning of the season.
The Rangers came into last season with some very high hopes and truth be told they exceeded them ... for the regular season that is. The Rangers won the President's Trophy and with that evoked the curse of being the best regular season team. For the 11th straight season the President's Trophy winner has failed to win the Stanley Cup. The good news is the sports books don't anticipate the big shirts going back to back for the best team in the league.
New York opens up with the seventh best odds to win the Stanley Cup at +1400. The books had even less faith last season when they opened up at the 10th best odds and +2000.
The Rangers didn't tinker with the main roster much. Outside of a couple of tweaks here and there they are rolling out the same team as last season and why not? New York has shown they can go deep into the playoffs by going to the Conference Finals twice in the last three years.
The Rangers also have the element that bettors love when placing a futures bet. Besides the obvious good odds the Rangers have a goalie that can dominate when the playoffs begin. Igor Shesterkin opens as the Vezina Trophy favorite and with good reason. Over the past three playoffs, there is no better goalie than Shesterkin with his 12.98 goals saved above average. The other two who came in 2nd and 3rd (Adin Hill and Sergey Bobrovsky) both led their teams to a championship.
The New York Islanders snuck into the last playoff spot last season, as they finished with 94 points. Their season did not go the way they wanted, despite the playoff nod. They finished with just 29 regulation wins, and had a negative goal differential, both the lowest by any playoff team.
The Isles don't try and trick anyone with who they are and will be again this year. This team thrives on defense. Their .911 save percentage was seventh best in the NHL despite having the fourth most shots against them last season. Ilya Sorokin went 25-19-2 allowing 3.01 goals against.
Like the Rangers the Islanders haven't done much in the way of changing their roster outside of some minor moves. Sebastian Aho, Robert Bortuzzo and Cal Clutterbuck are gone and forward Anthony Duclair, and his 42 points are in. If the Isles want to do more than just sneak into the playoffs they have to get more from Duclair on the offensive side and become a team that others are afraid of offensively.
Even with their excellent defense and Sorokin their +4400 odds ro win the cup seems like a bad way to place your money. Their odds to win the conference are more reasonable at +2000 and the division will net you 9 to 1 odds. If you believe the Isles improved and that offense can start to generate some points they are plus money to make the playoffs, which becomes intriguing. The best team bet might be on their over 91 points. Considering they went over last season and we expect them to be better this year, there is some value in that.
If you like individual awards Ilya Sorokin to win the Vezina is +900.