Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals takes place on Wednesday as the Los Angeles Kings travel each to take on the New Jersey Devils. The game is scheduled for an 8:00 pm start time and it will be televised live on NBC. Currently the odds have the Kings favored at -115 with the total sitting at 4.5 goals for the contest.
Free Analysis: The -115 odds on the Kings correlate to the team having a 53.49% chance of winning the game. It's only the second time the Kings are in the Stanley Cup Finals, the first since the 1993 Finals when they lost to the Montreal Canadiens. Los Angeles was something like 75/1 odds prior to the season for winning the Stanley Cup. If you were one of those people, fan or not, that bought that ticket, good luck to you because now they are favored over the Devils to win the Stanley Cup. The Devils were also a team that had tremendous odds to win the Cup and yet here we are, two teams no one expected to be here. Led by 40-year-old goalie Martin Brodeur, the Devils knocked off several quality clubs in the Florida Panthers, Philadelphia Flyers and the top seeded New York Rangers. The Kings were the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference and had to beat the top-seeded Vancouver Canucks, swept St. Louis in the second round and finished off a 4-1 series over the Phoenix Coyotes in the conference finals. New Jersey is just the second No. 6 seed all time to make it to the Stanley Cup Finals. The other was the 2004 Calgary Flames. Kings goalie Jonathan Quick has helped his team make the Finals as only the second No. 8 seed. The Edmonton Oilers of 2008 also made the Stanley Cup as the eighth seed. There isn't really a superstar on either of these clubs, but they both have several great players. Both teams play an upper-tempo type contest and I think the goaltenders will be huge in this game tonight. You can tell it will be a low-scoring game based on the 4.5 goal total set by oddsmakers.
Prediction: We like the Devils at home as underdogs in this contest tonight. Both team have had great runs to this point and the Stanley Cup Finals should be a lot of fun to watch. New Jersey has played exceptionally well at home during the playoffs, winning six of their eight games. Los Angeles has actually played much better on the road, which is why they are favored in this game, winning all eight of their games on the road. However, we'll take the Devils in this game tonight to win by a low-scoring margin of 2-1.
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