The Edmonton Oilers have won 16 consecutive games heading into the All-Star break, but the Rangers could also face stiff challenges from the Colorado Avalanche, Boston Bruins, and Florida Panthers.
Are the Rangers a good bet to win the Stanley Cup? Join me as I take a closer look at the DraftKings New Jersey NHL Stanley Cup futures board.
DraftKings 2023-2024 Stanley Cup Odds
|
Player |
Conference |
DK Stanley Cup Odds |
|---|---|---|
|
Edmonton Oilers |
Western |
+700 |
|
Colorado Avalanche |
Western |
+750 |
|
Boston Bruins |
Eastern |
+750 |
|
New York Rangers |
Eastern |
+1000 |
|
Florida Panthers |
Eastern |
+1000 |
Rangers in Stacked Eastern Conference
A bet on the Rangers to win the Stanley Cup is also a bet on them to win the Eastern Conference, but they won’t likely win anything unless New York goaltender Igor Shesterkin returns to form.
Shesterkin is regarded as one of the best in the game, but not this season. He’s having the worst season of his career, with the 36th-best save percentage. Fortunately for New York, backup netminder Jonathan Quick has been steady, but the blue line has been shaky, and the club’s best defensive pairing is the 36th-best in the NHL.
New York is a top-10 scoring team with the fifth-best power play unit in the game. The Rangers boast three of the top 15 power-play goal scorers, but the penalty kill unit needs work, as does the blue line. Still, defeating the Boston Bruins and Florida Panthers of the NHL will be difficult without Shesterkin in top form.
Boston leads the Eastern Conference and would love to avoid another first-round Stanley Cup playoff exit. The Bruins have the highest goal differential in the East (+47), and netminder Jeremy Swayman boasts the second-best goals-against average in the game. The Bruins special teams are also a top-shelf, with a top-five power play and seventh-best penalty kill unit.
The Bruins will be formidable, but so will the Florida Panthers. Sam Reinhart leads the league in power-play goals (20) and is second behind Toronto’s Austin Matthews for the top-goal-scoring honors.
Florida isn’t the game’s biggest scoring team, but they have solid netminding. Sergei Bobrovsky has the eighth-best GAA for a Panthers club allowing the third-fewest goals per game. Their special teams need work, but they will enjoy health going into the second half of the season and will be a formidable foe for the Rangers come March.
Edmonton on Fire in the West
If the Stanley Cup playoffs were to begin today, the Oilers would be the sixth seed in the Western Conference, but there is no one hotter right now than the Edmonton Oilers. They started the season 2-10, but Connor McDavid and Leon Draistaitl have been money for the Oilers, and netminder Stuart Skinner has the league’s sixth-best goals-against average.
The Oilers’ special teams have been good; Edmonton is fourth on the power play with the league’s fifth-best penalty kill unit with the cleanest injury report in the NHL. They will challenge the Rangers but must get past Nathan MacKinnon and the Colorado Avalanche.
Colorado rolled into the All-Star break riding a three-game winning streak and winners of seven of their last 10. The Avs boast the third-best goal differential in the Western Conference, and score the most goals per game, with the NHL’s second-leading scorer MacKinnon leading the way.
Mikko Rantanen and Cale Makar have also been dynamite for an Avalanche team with the second-best goaltending in the NHL. Goaltender Alexandar Georgiev leads the league in wins, but the blue line isn’t that great, and the penalty kill is just tenth in the game.
Conclusion
I’m not ready to predict a Stanley Cup winner, and I won’t be making any futures on the New York Rangers or anyone else for a while. The Rangers have a great chance to win it all, but they need better defense, and Shesterkin must return to the form that won him the 2022 Vezina Trophy as the league’s best goaltender.
Without Shesterkin in top form, the Rangers will have difficulties getting past the first round. Boston suffered a first-round exit in last year’s Stanley Cup because of their goaltending, and unless New York bolsters their blue line, the Rangers aren’t a good bet to win anything big this spring.
For more New Jersey sports betting news, check us out at Betting NJ.
