The St. Louis Blues have been Stanley Cup champions for barely an hour Wednesday night — they blew the Boston Bruins away, winning 4-1 — but of course, it’s never too early to look ahead to next season.
(If you’re not ready to look ahead, we have plenty of stories about the Blues’ first Stanley Cup in franchise history here, here and here.)
Despite St. Louis surviving the Western Conference and plowing over the Bruins in the Stanley Cup Final, the new reigning champs aren’t the favorites to win the 2019-20 Stanley Cup. The Blues actually have the sixth-best odds, according to NBC Sports.
Taking a step back, the Stanley Cup playoffs this year were crazy with the top-4 seeds in each division going down in the first round. The Tampa Bay Lightning — the huge favorites at the end of the regular season — were swept by the Columbus Blue Jackets, as the Washington Capitals, the then-defending champs, the Nashville Predators and the Calgary Flames all lost in the opening round too.
But apparently none of that matters to oddsmakers because the Lightning are still the favorites going into next season with 6-1 odds. The Vegas Golden Knights are second at 7-1, and the Bruins, Colorado Avalanche and Toronto Maple Leafs are all tied for third at 10-1.
And then there are the Blues, who are about to celebrate the team’s first championship all summer and not care one bit about these way-too-early odds.
But for everyone else, this is what’s predicted for this time next year.
