Scott Kinville 
LA Kings Twitter
The betting site BetOnline.ag has released it’s odds for each NHL team to win its respective conference. Where do the LA Kings stack up?
It might be the dog days of summer, so to speak, but LA Kings hockey season is inching closer. The release of season-long betting odds means that soon enough, we will be dropping the puck on a brand new season. BetOnline.ag has released their preliminary odds for each team to win its conference.
#NHL Odds to win Western and Eastern Conference. Courtesy @betonline_ag pic.twitter.com/NVzglksgYi
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The top two choices in the Western Conference are no surprise, as the Colorado Avalanche and Vegas Golden Knights are expected to battle it out for conference supremacy. Oddsmakers apparently believe last season was no fluke for the Minnesota Wild and also that the Dallas Stars will have a bounce-back season. Both of those teams are at 11/1 odds to win the West. Rounding out the top five is Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers at 12/1.
The biggest surprise in either conference has to be the Seattle Kraken at 14/1. Phillip Grubauer better turn into a combination of Grant Fuhr, Patrick Roy, Martin Brodeur, and Dominik Hasek for this to happen.
The LA Kings come in at 33/1, the same as their bitter rivals, the San Jose Sharks. This ties them for the second-worst odds to win the Western Conference, according to BetOnline. I found the Kings’ low odds to be quite surprising given their improvements this offseason, as opposed to the Sharks, who did little to get better. They are also dealing with the ongoing Evander Kane headache.
Given their division and the influx of prospects that should start this season, I felt the LA Kings should have been in the 25/1 category with the Vancouver Canucks and Nashville Predators.
As I stated, these are preliminary odds, and they will most likely fluctuate as we get closer to the start of the season. Regardless of what the odds say, all a team needs to do is make the playoffs to beat projections – the LA Kings know this very well.
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