Stanley Cup Odds 2012: Teams with Best Chance of Making It to Finals

The 2012 Stanley Cup playoffs are fast approaching the second round. None of the first-round series have been won yet, but a couple of them will soon be over, and the rest will be quick to follow suit.

A lot can still change in the first round, but by now, we have a pretty good idea of how different teams match up. We also have a pretty good idea of which teams have saved their best hockey for the postseason and which ones haven't.

The teams that are playing their best hockey right now obviously stand a very good chance of making it all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals. Here's how I view the odds for the top teams.

Los Angeles Kings

The Kings entered the playoffs as the lowest seed in the Western Conference, but they've proceeded to make a mockery of the top-seeded Vancouver Canucks.

Entering Wednesday, the Kings hold a 3-0 lead in the series, and they will look to finish off the Canucks in Los Angeles on Wednesday night. Nobody should scoff at their chances of finishing off a sweep, as the Kings have shown that they can beat the Canucks any which way.

The Kings have been impressive in just about every area; make no mistake about that. Jonathan Quick has been great between the pipes. The Kings haven't allowed a single power-play goal. And they were also much better than advertised offensively in the first two games of the series in Vancouver.

However, it must be pointed out that the Kings have raced out to a 3-0 series lead against a Canucks team that is not at full strength.

The Canucks have been without leading goal-scorer Daniel Sedin for several weeks at this point, and their offensive attack has suffered as a result. To boot, Henrik Sedin has most definitely missed having his twin brother around.

So the Kings are playing well, but they've also caught the Canucks at the right time. Take their hot playoff start for what it's worth.

Odds of Reaching Finals: 7/1

New York Rangers

The top-seeded Rangers are going up against the eighth-seeded Ottawa Senators, but a clean sweep never was in the cards. The Senators handled the Rangers pretty well in the regular season, and they match up very well for a variety of reasons.

All the same, the Rangers hold a 2-1 edge in the series heading into Wednesday's Game 4 in Ottawa. They won Game 3 thanks to a shutout from brilliant netminder Henrik Lundqvist.

Lundqvist will have to keep up the good work, as the Senators have a very good offensive attack capable of running up the score in a hurry. But as long as Lundqvist is at his best and the Rangers are playing good defense in front of him, this is a series they should win.

The Rangers are not a perfect team, but they're a team with relatively few weaknesses. There's no one weakness in particular that you can point to as being their inevitable downfall.

Can the Rangers be beaten? Of course they can.

But there's a reason they entered the playoffs as the top seed in the Eastern Conference, and it's because they're a very, very strong team. They're a legit threat to make it to the finals until further notice.

Odds of Reaching Finals: 13/2

St. Louis Blues

The Blues ran into trouble in Game 1 of their series against the San Jose Sharks, losing in double overtime on a one-timer by Martin Havlat. 

Since then, the Blues have been largely dominant.

They shut out the Sharks in Game 2 to level the series and then withstood a late push by the Sharks in Game 3 after dominating much of the proceedings.

The Blues are not as flashy on paper as the Sharks are, but the difference in this series has been St. Louis' collective toughness. They've made absolutely nothing easy for the Sharks, and they had little trouble capitalizing on San Jose's weak penalty-killing in Game 3.

Right now, the fact that the Blues went a perfect 4-0 against the Sharks in the regular season does not look like a fluke. The Sharks stole Game 1, but they'll be lucky to steal another in this series.

The Blues are showing why they're a threat to make it to the finals in this series. They're a team that doesn't make many mistakes, and they have two outstanding goalies to put in net at any given time. Whoever beats them is going to have to earn it.

Odds of Reaching Finals: 11/2

Boston Bruins

Boston's Stanley Cup defense did not go perfectly during the regular season, and the Washington Capitals have given the Bruins everything they can handle in their first-round series.

But is there any doubt right now that the Bruins are the better team?

Maybe a little, but not a whole lot.

The Bruins have displayed the exact same kind of balance and overall team grit that led them to the Stanley Cup Finals last season, and nobody should doubt that they're a threat to go back this season.

I don't expect the Bruins to dominate when they take the ice for a given game. What I do expect is to see a team that can win pretty much any kind of game.

If they need to score a lot of goals to win, they can do that. If they need a brilliant performance from Tim Thomas, odds are that he'll provide one. If the Bruins need to dish out a few bruises in a physical game, they'll do that.

What makes the Bruins scary is the fact that they were forced to run the gauntlet last year, as they had to win two seven-game series to make it to the finals and then another to actually win the Stanley Cup.

That experience will serve them well this year.

Odds of Reaching Finals: 5/1 

Philadelphia Flyers

At the outset of the postseason, the series between the Flyers and Pittsburgh Penguins was widely viewed as a series that could go the distance.

It doesn't look like it will.

The Flyers have owned the Penguins ever since falling behind 3-0 in the first period of Game 1, and they succeeded in breaking the Penguins' spirits in Game 3. 

Oh, and the Flyers have also scored a ton of goals. They've scored eight in each of the last two games, and 16 total. That's ridiculous.

It's not a huge surprise that the Flyers can score, as they finished second in the NHL in scoring in the regular season. The Penguins are also a high-scoring team, but what the Flyers have shown so far in this series is that they are a far more complete team. 

Assuming the Flyers finish off the Penguins, it's not going to be so easy for them to run up the score and utterly dominate whoever comes next. Odds are whoever plays the Flyers next is going to be more disciplined and more concerned with stopping the Flyers' offensive attack.

But the Flyers already were a dangerous team, and now they have momentum. That's a scary thought.

Odds of Reaching Finals: 9/2