NHL Picks

NHL Betting Game Trends

The Stanley Cup betting lines will start being contested on Wednesday night at the Prudential Center, where the Los Angeles Kings will take on the New Jersey Devils in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals.

The Kings are the favored team in this series to the point that they are also the favored team in this game. Jonathan Quick’s GAA is the best in the playoffs at 1.53, and he is clearly on his way to the Conn Smythe Trophy as the MVP of the playoffs if he can win just four more games. Los Angeles really has been as dominating as could be out of the No. 8 seed in the West. The team disposed of the No. 1 Vancouver Canucks, No. 2 St. Louis Blues, and No. 3 Phoenix Coyotes in just a total of 14 games, a run of the likes that we haven’t seen in quite some time. Jeff Carter, Dustin Brown, and the rest of the crew have the offense to get the job done, and this looks nothing like the team that ranked second to last in the league offensively this year.

The Devils finished this year fourth in the Atlantic Division, but they were able to dispose of both the Philadelphia Flyers and the New Jersey Devils in the playoffs to prove that they were as good of a team as any of the clubs in front of them in the regular season standings. Martin Brodeur is now 40 years old, and it has been a decade since he has been in the Stanley Cup Finals. He’s not having the greatest year in the world, but he is getting the job done and making the offense stand up. There have been times in these playoffs that New Jersey has failed and failed miserably offensively, just like when the team was shut out in two of the first three games in the Eastern Conference Finals. However, there have been 12 goals in the last three games, a real accomplishment against Henrik Lundqvist, arguably the best goalie in the league and a soon-to-be Vezina Trophy winner. The pieces to the puzzle are here for the Devils to win the Stanley Cup once again for sure.

For a team that won 30 games here at home this year including the playoffs, we think that the Devils are being vastly underrated here. They really should be the favorites in this game, and in all of the home games in this series in our opinion. We do think that the Kings are the better team and might be able to win the Stanley Cup, but we think that the value is here on New Jersey for sure.

Los Angeles Kings @ New Jersey Devils Game 1 Pick: New Jersey Devils +100