The Daily Sweat: Colorado, Tampa Bay meet in Stanley Cup Final rematch
With the football season now in the rearview mirror, we need to turn our attention to other sports for the next seven months. A lot of people will pivot to both the NBA and college basketball, but personally, I'm excited to get the chance to watch even more hockey down the stretch. Each team has just about 30 games left on the schedule as playoff races heat up. Tuesday features a solid nine game slate in the NHL, and the best game on the schedule will take place in Colorado, where the Avalanche host the Tampa Bay Lightning.
This game serves as a rematch of the Stanley Cup Finals from last season, where the Avalanche beat the Lightning in six games and ended Tampa Bay's dreams of a three-peat. These teams met just five days ago in Tampa Bay, with the Lightning delivering the Avalanche a beating in a 5-0 victory. With Colorado back at home on Tuesday night, expect last week's embarrassment to be top of mind for the defending champions. Colorado is a +105 home underdog.
Both of these teams are currently in the top-five favorites at BetMGM to win the Stanley Cup this season, though a lot of that may boil down to these teams' reputations. Tampa Bay currently has the fifth-best record in hockey, so there are no issues with them having the fifth-best odds to win the Cup at 12-to-1. However, the unfortunate reality for Tampa Bay is that two of the four teams with a better record than them play in their division. In order to return to the conference finals for a fourth straight season, Tampa Bay would likely need to beat Toronto (4th best team) and then Boston (league's best team) in the first two rounds of the playoffs.
For Colorado, the situation is quite a bit more dire. The Avalanche are currently sitting on the outside of the playoffs looking in, though they do have games in hand on the teams they are chasing. Still, nobody expected the Avalanche to be fighting tooth-and-nail just to get into the playoffs. They opened as the favorites to win the Stanley Cup after putting together a dominant run last season and ending a mini-dynasty. It's been a bit better for Colorado lately. They've gone 8-2-1 in their last eleven games. Can they keep the momentum going and get a big win as a home underdog against one of the league's better teams?
Eight other NHL games
Outside of the Stanley Cup rematch in Denver, there's plenty of other intriguing spots on the NHL schedule on Tuesday night.
The Boston Bruins are the best team in the NHL, but they've come back down to Earth in recent weeks and are doing the league a favor and mixing in some losses once in a while. Boston is a -125 road favorite in Dallas on Tuesday. The Stars currently lead the Central Division, to the surprise of many. Elsewhere out West, two of the league's more surprising teams meet as the Winnipeg Jets are -145 favorites at home against the Seattle Kraken.
In the East, the wild-card race is heating up and all of the top contenders are in action. Washington occupies the first wild-card spot, but they are +140 home underdogs against the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday. The Pittsburgh Penguins occupy the final playoff spot, and they are -155 road favorites out west in San Jose. The New York Islanders and Florida Panthers are on the outside looking in, but both teams are favored to pick up wins on Tuesday. The Isles are -175 home favorites against Ottawa, while Florida is a -130 road favorite in St. Louis.
Potential Eastern Conference Final preview in the NBA
The all-star break is coming up this weekend in the NBA, which means this week will be tough to bet. Players will be sitting out and weird things happen as players look forward to their mini-vacations.
On paper, the matchup between the Boston Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks looks like a potential preview of the Eastern Conference Finals come May. The teams currently occupy the top two seeds in the conference and both have recent playoff success to validate their records.
However, on Tuesday, the Bucks are 8.5-point home favorites over Boston. Jaylen Brown is out with a facial injury after taking an elbow from teammate Jayson Tatum last week. Speaking of Tatum, he's doubtful to play on Tuesday with a non-COVID illness. So Boston looks like it will be without its top two players, taking a lot of shine off this matchup.
Out west, the Los Angeles Clippers are 8.5-point home favorites over the Golden State Warriors. The Warriors are on the second half of a back-to-back after beating Washington on Monday night. Golden State remains without Steph Curry.
Ranked Big 12 teams in danger on the road?
If you've been betting college basketball for any length of time, you know that the ranked road favorite laying a few points against an unranked home team is a dangerous proposition. Two Big 12 matchups on Tuesday fit the bill.
No. 5 Kansas heads to Stillwater, where the Jayhawks are a short 1.5-point road favorite against an unranked Oklahoma State team. Elsewhere in the conference, No. 12 Kansas State is just a 1.5-point road favorite in Norman against the unranked Oklahoma Sooners. Both games should come down to the wire as the best conference in college basketball delivers on seemingly a nightly basis.
Elsewhere, the lone matchup featuring two ranked teams comes in the Big East. No. 18 Creighton is a 1.5-point road favorite at No. 24 Providence. Creighton has won eight consecutive games.
In the Big Ten, Wisconsin is a 1.5-point home favorite over Michigan, while Illinois is a 3.5-point road favorite at Penn State.
