Online Wagering Favors Penguins in 2010. Whenever you start thinking about football online wagering you don’t have to wait long for hockey. The NHL season is also right around the corner and the Pittsburgh Penguins are likely to be very popular with gamblers who make an online wager. The Penguins are one of the favorites to win the Stanley Cup this season.
Online wagering favors Pittsburgh in the Atlantic Division. The Philadelphia Flyers won the Eastern Conference last season but that was more of a fluke than anything else. The Flyers were lucky to make the playoffs and most people don’t believe they can repeat their success. The Penguins are the team to follow in the Atlantic Division as they have the most talent.
The Penguins have one of the best players in the league in Sidney Crosby and a player in Evgeni Malkin who is not far behind. The team lost Sergei Gonchar in the off-season but they did a nice job replacing him with Paul Martin and Zbynek Michalek. The Penguins were great on offense anyway so they may be better off without Gonchar who was a defensive liability. The key for Pittsburgh vs. the online wagering NHL odds will be getting goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury to reach elite status.
The Flyers are supposed to be the team that challenges the Penguins in the Atlantic Division but people who make an online wager may be forgetting about New Jersey. The Devils actually won the Atlantic Division last season, not the Penguins or the Flyers. The key for New Jersey will be getting the league to agree to the deal that they worked out with winger Ilya Kovalchuk. The NHL didn’t like the 17-year deal but something will probably get done and Kovalchuk will return to New Jersey.
The rest of the Atlantic Division looks weak although the Rangers did make a nice move with the signing of Alexander Frolov from Los Angeles. The Rangers are well coached and it would not be a surprise in online wagering to see them make some improvements in 2010. The other New York team continues to flounder and be unpopular with gamblers who make an online wager and that may not change even if goaltender Rick DiPietro stays healthy for more than a few games.