Rangers Rising in Stanley Cup Betting Odds
High-Scoring Leafs On a Roll
Things are getting interesting in the race for the President’s Trophy, with the Vancouver Canucks leading the Boston Bruins and New York Rangers by one point and the Florida Panthers by two points. Naturally, all those teams are among the squads with the best NHL odds to win the Stanley Cup.
With the Rangers’ 10-game winning streak ending against Columbus, the Toronto Maple Leafs now have the longest active winning streak in the NHL.
Vancouver continues to lead in goal differential and is slowly moving in the right direction in our NHL playoff odds, while the Bruins and Panthers are among the favorites in our Stanley Cup odds.
Here’s a look at the current top and bottom five teams in the NHL.
Top Five Teams
1. New York Rangers
If the playoffs started today, the Rangers would be the top seed in the Eastern Conference thanks to five more regulation wins than the Boston Bruins.
After beginning the month with wins over Colorado and Tampa Bay, who would have thought the Rangers’ bid to go through February without a loss would end against the lowly Columbus Blue Jackets?
That ended a 10-game winning streak by the Rangers.
Nine Rangers players have at least two goals in February. Artemi Panarin leads the team with 10 assists and 13 points in the month, Chris Kreider has six goals, and defensemen Adam Fox and Ryan Lindgren both have plus/minus ratings of +10.
- New York Rangers Championship odds: +1000
2. Florida Panthers
While the Panthers are one point behind the Bruins in the Atlantic Division race, Florida has played one fewer game.
Florida is 8-2 over its last 10 games and has been trading off the top spot with the Bruins in recent days. The Panthers lead the Eastern Conference with 20 road wins and only the Rangers and Carolina Hurricanes have more home victories among Eastern Conference teams.
Since Jan. 1, only Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov and Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers have more points than Florida’s Matthew Tkachuk.
The Panthers have covered 19 times on the road this season.
- Florida Panthers Championship odds: +900
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Toronto Maple Leafs
The Maple Leafs still have some work to do to catch up to Boston and Florida in the Atlantic Division. However, it is hard to overlook a seven-game winning streak when Toronto has outscored its opponents 38-17. The Maple Leafs are averaging 5.4 goals per game over that stretch.
Maple Leafs Extend Winning Streak to 7 with Win Over Avalanche https://t.co/ycBX9AhvZd#THW #HockeyTwitter
— The Hockey Writers (@TheHockeyWriter) February 25, 2024
Their +21 goal differential is not only the best in the league, the 21 goals are more than what 19 teams have scored since Toronto’s winning streak began.
It is becoming more newsworthy when Auston Matthews doesn’t score a goal than when he adds to his NHL-leading total. He is currently at 52, while William Nylander leads the team with 78 points, 13 of those coming during the winning streak
- Toronto Maple Leafs Championship odds: +1300
4. Vancouver Canucks
Vancouver looked headed to its fifth straight loss as the Canucks trailed the visiting Bruins by two goals midway through the third period before rallying for an overtime win.
Vancouver leads the NHL with 82 points and the Canucks have an 11-point lead in the Pacific Division.
The Canucks do need to start picking things up against the better teams. Their numbers in February would look much worse if not for a 3-0-1 record in a four-game stretch against Detroit, Washington, Chicago, and Detroit again.
So far this season, 21 of Vancouver’s 33 road games have landed over the total at our sportsbook.
- Vancouver Canucks Championship odds: +1200
5. Boston Bruins
The recent play of the Bruins is a little troubling. Boston has been relying a little too much on the goaltending tandem of Jeremy Swayman and Linus Ullmark to bail them out.
Boston leads the NHL with eight losses when leading after two periods with seven of those coming in overtime or a shootout.
The Bruins just squandered a two-goal lead in the third period in an overtime loss to Vancouver as the Bruins were fortunate to come away with four out of six points in a recent three-game road trip.
Defenseman Hampus Lindholm is out for an extended period and that is not good news for the Bruins.
It is not all bad news as Boston is currently tied for the Eastern Conference lead with 81 points.
- Boston Bruins Championship odds: +900
Bottom Five Teams
28. Columbus Blue Jackets
A recent 7-4 win over Anaheim and a stunning upset of a Rangers team riding a 10-game winning streak has Columbus listed as the best of the worst teams to bet on the NHL.
Boone Jenner leads Columbus with five goals over the last seven games, while Dimitri Voronkov continues his breakthrough season with four goals in February.
Columbus does have points in nine of its last 11 games decided by one goal.
- Columbus Blue Jackets Championship odds: +50000
29. Anaheim Ducks
One of these years, all the high draft picks on the Anaheim roster will translate into more success, right?
Anaheim gave up seven and nine goals in a recent three-game span and only the presence of the San Jose Sharks is keeping Anaheim out of last place in the Pacific Division.
How much longer will the Ducks hold onto veteran defenseman Cam Fowler and goalie John Gibson as the perpetual rebuilding process continues?
- Anaheim Ducks Championship odds: +100000
30. San Jose Sharks
The Sharks are playing much better after a nightmarish start to the season. However, San Jose has just one win in February and 11 regulation wins to show for it.
Don’t be surprised to see some of the veteran players heading elsewhere as the Sharks look to take the next step in a long rebuilding process.
Filip Zadina leads San Jose with three goals in five February games. He is also one of three Sharks with a positive plus/minus rating in the month. Still, San Jose is about to become the first team this season with a -100 goal differential.
Only 10 of San Jose’s home games have gone over the total.
- San Jose Sharks Championship odds: +100000
31. Chicago Blackhawks
The good news is that star rookie Connor Bedard is back. The bad news is that his supporting cast is pretty dreadful.
Chicago has the fewest regulation wins in the NHL and could be headed to receiving the No. 1 overall draft pick for the second season in a row. The difference is last season, the Blackhawks were trying to lose to get the rights to Bedard. That is not the case this season
Chicago is just 9-20 against the NHL spread on the road, with 11 of those games finishing over the total.
- Chicago Blackhawks Championship odds: +100000
32. Arizona Coyotes
A 12-game losing streak is more than enough for the Coyotes to land at the bottom of our weekly NHL power rankings.
The losing streak began with Arizona being outscored 12-5 in losses to Florida and Tampa Bay. However, seven of the last 10 games were decided by either one or two goals.
Arizona has been outscored 56-29 over those 12 games and has only a pair of overtime losses to show for it.
Some of the plus/minus numbers are rather scary with defenseman Sean Durzi leading the way at -15.
- Arizona Coyotes Championship odds: +25000
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Questions Of The Day
Which NHL team has the best ATS record this season?
The Philadelphia Flyers lead the NHL with a 38-20 ATS record. Montreal is next at 36-22.
Who is the leading scorer in the NHL?
Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov became the first player this season to hit the 100-point mark. He has 102 points, six more than Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon.
