By Tomi Rantanen
For every National Hockey League game, AccuScore has NHL Expert Picks and Game Previews
Blackhawks favored to win the Stanley Cup
The NHL Stanley Cup Finals start tonight in Florida, where Eastern Conference winners Tampa Bay Lightning are hosting the Chicago Blackhawks. It is the first visit to the finals for the Lightning since winning the Cup in 2004, while the visitors have been regulars already winning it twice this decade. We have run the simulations for the whole series, but let’s take a look at the game 1 first:
According to AccuScore simulations, the Blackhawks are once again the favorites to bring the Stanley Cup back to the Windy City. In the games played in Florida, the Blackhawks are ~55% favorites but at home in the United Center they command with over 60% probability of winning. The simulations also indicate a lot of goals scored by both teams, which eventually will work out well for the Blackhawks with over three goals scored on average while Lightning only manages 2.8 goals per game.
The superstar caliber forwards are expected to shine for both teams with Chicago’s Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews dominant in point scoring category. Both of them have more than 55% probability to score a point. Lightning’s stars Tyler Johnson, Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov are shining a bit less bright, with a tad under 50% chance to score a point.
Even if Chicago is 57.8% favorite to win the Stanley Cup, especially the games in Florida are extremely close and can go either way. With Lightning having the home advantage it could be a lot trickier final series than anticipated.
