Sportsbook Page – NHL Regular Season Starts on Thursday. There are five games on Thursday including Carolina and Minnesota playing in Helsinki, Finland. It is really a good opening day schedule of games at the offshore sportsbook that includes the Flyers at the Penguins and the defending Stanley Cup champion Blackhawks in Colorado.
The other two games for Thursday have Montreal in Toronto and Calgary at Edmonton. You want to be aware of the early start time for Carolina and Minnesota. Since the game is in Finland it will start at noon eastern time. It will be televised on the Versus network so you can watch and wager on the game. Versus also have the Flyers and Penguins and the Blackhawks and Avalanche. CBC has the Canadians and Maple Leafs.
Capitals are Favored to win the Stanley Cup – The Washington Capitals are the 4.5 to 1 favorites at the offshore sportsbook to win the Stanley Cup. The Capitals have one of the most exciting players in the league in Alex Ovechkin and perhaps this is the season they get over the hump and into the finals. Pittsburgh and Chicago are co-second choices at Sbg global at 6-1. While the Penguins and Blackhawks begin their seasons on Thursday, the Capitals open up on Friday in Atlanta.
Much Different Chicago Team – The Blackhawks are the defending Stanley Cup champs but they look nothing like last year’s squad. Yes, they still have Jonathan Toews, Duncan Keith and Patrick Kane but they lost a lot of very good players from last year’s team. It starts in goal where they didn’t want to pay Antti Niemi so they let him leave. They also won’t have playoff hero Dustin Byfuglien, Kris Versteeg, Andrew Ladd, Ben Eager, Brent Sopel, Adam Burish and John Madden. They signed Marty Turco to replace Niemi in goal but they are going to quickly learn that Turco is not a championship goaltender. If you have watched him play in Dallas over the past few years you know what I am talking about. Chicago could be much overvalued and a team that is overvalued in NHL odds on the sportsbook page.