posted January 7, 2008 at 14:26 in NHL Articles
Hockey Betting Action - Eastern Conference all bunched up
Don’t like where your favorite National Hockey League team is sitting in the Eastern Conference standings? Wait a few minutes. The Ottawa Senators have a comfortable lead in the tight East now, but teams ranked 2-14 are all within 10 points of each other heading into play on Monday night. And that 15th team? That’s the Tampa Bay Lightning, and if you’ve been doing any NHL betting on them over the past few weeks you’ve lost cash.
Here’s how the Eastern standings looked after the final buzzer sounded on Sunday:
01 * Ottawa --- 58
02 * New Jersey --- 49
03 * Carolina --- 46
04 Pittsburgh --- 48
05 Montreal --- 48
06 Boston --- 46
07 NY Rangers --- 45
08 Philadelphia --- 44
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09 NY Islanders --- 44
10 Atlanta --- 43
11 Buffalo --- 41
12 Florida --- 41
13 Toronto --- 40
14 Washington --- 39
15 Tampa Bay --- 35
The asterisks denote the conference’s three division leaders, which is how the Carolina Hurricanes are sitting with the third seed. The Canes have won just four of their last 10 games, but they still hold a three-point lead on the Atlanta Thrashers in the Southeast Division. Put Carolina in the Atlantic or in the Northeast and they would be in third place.
So how well do those current standings line up with the NHL betting odds to win the Eastern Conference at BetUS right now? Here are those same standings, with that odds list:
01 * Ottawa --- +150
02 * New Jersey --- +600
03 * Carolina --- +700
04 Pittsburgh --- +800
05 Montreal --- +1500
06 Boston --- +2000
07 NY Rangers --- +600
08 Philadelphia --- +900
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09 NY Islanders --- +2500
10 Atlanta --- +2000
11 Buffalo --- +900
12 Florida --- +2200
13 Toronto --- +2500
14 Washington --- +6000
15 Tampa Bay --- +2500
The top values on that above list right now look like the Montreal Canadiens and the Boston Bruins, who both have quadruple-digit odds to win the conference but are currently sitting in the East’s Top 8. The Habs are 5-2-3 over their past 10 games, and they’re in fifth place in the conference despite the fact that they’re only 7-7-5 on home ice so far this year; a sparkling 13-6-3 record on the road has boosted their points total.
The Bruins have won three games in a row over the Thrashers, Capitals, and Devils to stay in the Top 8 of the conference after a difficult month of December. Boston is still dealing with injuries to both Patrice Bergeron and Glen Murray, and they’ll need to find some way to boost their offense (ranked last in the Northeast Division) if they hope to stay above the playoff cutoff. The Bruins will take on the Canadiens on Thursday night.
The Flyers and Islanders are tied with 44 points in the standings (Philadelphia has a game in hand), but they have vastly different conference championship odds. Philly, who started out well, is at just +900 odds, while the Islanders, who haven’t excited anyone this season, are at +2500 odds. Like Boston, New York’s problem is offense – they’d scored a conference-low 98 goals in 40 games heading into this week’s schedule.
The worst-performing team right now according to the conference title odds? That’d be the Buffalo Sabres, who are 11th in the standings but are still at a modest +900 odds to win the East. The Sabres had a six-game winning streak in the middle of December, but since the Christmas break they’ve lost six games in a row. If Buffalo continues to play like that throughout January they’ll find their conference odds sinking down the chart.
And of course the Ottawa Senators are the clear leaders on the Eastern Conference odds list, just like they’re the clear leader in the standings. The Sens have lost just twice in their past seven games (both times to the Washington Capitals for some reason), and they now have bruising defenseman Anton Volchenkov back in the lineup. Ottawa just needs to find a little stability between the pipes before they embark on their playoff run.
The only Eastern Conference team in action on Monday night is the New York Islanders, who will take on the Oilers out in Edmonton. Game time is set for 9:00pm ET.
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