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 | The NHL belongs to the Western Conference. The best teams over the last half decade have largely resided in out west, with four of the last five Stanley Cup winners coming from that conference. Teams like the Chicago Blackhawks and Los Angeles Kings have not only produced multiple title runs, but done so in dominant fashion. | | - November 21, 2014 - The NHL belongs to the Western Conference. The best teams over the last half decade have largely resided in out west, with four of the last five Stanley Cup winners coming from that conference. Teams like the Chicago Blackhawks and Los Angeles Kings have not only produced multiple title runs, but done so in dominant fashion.
Heading in to this season, the expectations were for that dominance to continue. Before the season, Gambling.com wrote that the odds for a Western Conference team to be hoisting Lord Stanley's mug at the end of the season were 8/11. Notice they didn't specify which team, just stated the high odds that someone from that conference would be the NHL's ultimate champion. Despite a number of surprising teams in the Eastern Conference, four of the top six teams in terms of outright odds still hail from the Western Conference, led by Chicago.
The Blackhawks could very well be seeking out their third consecutive Stanley Cup were it not for the Kings, and it's easy to see why many are bullish on this team despite their slow start to the season. Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews are two of the best hockey players on the planet, and they get to play alongside players like Marian Hossa, Brad Richards, Patrick Sharp, and Duncan Keith. Throw in an experienced, Cup-winning goaltender like Corey Crawford and it hardly seems fair, especially considering the Chicago braintrust has locked up Kane and Toews to long-term deals already. This is a team that ranks first in shots per game, nearly five ahead of the second place team, but just 13th in goals for per game. Sooner or later, more of those shots will start finding the net, and once they do this team will become terrifying. No wonder they're the favorite.
Also worth keeping an eye on, obviously, are the LA Kings. They've had a similarly slow and surprising start to their season, but still count players like Jonathan Quick, Dustin Brown, and Anze Kopitar among their weapons. Add to that core a number of players that were around for the runs that produced Cup wins in two of the last three seasons, and this is another team that just needs to get to the playoffs to scare any team in front of them.
Add to those powerhouses the always good Anaheim Ducks and on-the-rise squads like the St. Louis Blues and Minnesota Wild, and it's easy to see why many consider the Western Conference the superior conference, a crown it could very well hang on to for the foreseeable future.
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