The Stanley Cup is the highlight of the ice hockey season, and every team hopes to hold the famous trophy aloft at the end of the Finals.
What chance do the Flyers have to win it this season? What are their chances among the favorites in the NHL betting odds?
Their History in the Stanley Cup
The Flyers have the third-best all-time points percentage record in the NHL and have won eight Conference championships to date. Therefore, it’s something of a surprise to see that they have only ever won the Stanley Cup on a couple of occasions. These victories came in the 1974-74 and 1974-5 seasons, which was the period when they became known as the Broad Street Bullies.
The team from Philadelphia has been to a further six Stand Cup Finals but has never managed to bring back those glory days of the mid-1970s. Their most recent appearance came in the 2010 event, where they lost 4-2 against the Chicago Blackhawks.
This Season
The Flyers have had a mediocre season that currently sees them sitting in seventh place in the Metropolitan Division of the NHL, with only the New Jersey Devils below them. A record of 20 wins and 31 losses makes it easy to see why they aren’t high-rated in the search for their third Stanley Cup.
They recently traded Claude Giroux to the Florida Panthers, shortly after he’d played his 1,000th game for the Flyers. In exchange, Owen Tippett headed to Philadelphia and the Flyers got a couple of Florida’s future draft picks. The departure of Giroux marks the end of an era and some critics suggest that it shows that their current team-building policy has failed.
The team reacted positively to this change, with a 2-1 win against the New York Islanders. Kevin Hayes scored both goals but this didn’t look like a team that’s about to make a late-season surge. Instead, the majority of Flyers fans seem to be happy for the season to just end so that they can look forward to the draft and hope for a better time next season.
Who Are the Favorites?
If you look at the list of the favorites for the 2022 Stanley Cup, the Flyers are far from the top places. In fact, their current odds are +100000, which puts them alongside the likes of the Buffalo Sabres, the Arizona Coyotes, and the Seattle Kraken.
At the other end of the list, the Colorado Avalanche are the favorites right now, at +400. They are looking to win their third Finals, with the last victory coming in 2011. The Avalanche have been in good form lately and just signed forward Artturi Lehkonen from the Montreal Canadiens, which should help them finish the season strongly and make up for the loss through injury of Gabriel Landeskog.
Next on the list of favorites to win the Stanley Cup 2022, the Tampa Bay Lightning team is searching for a third consecutive victory in the Finals. Their odds are +600 but it’ll be interesting to find whether the recent arrivals of Brandon Hagel and Nick Paul strengthens the team from Tampa Bay enough for them to claim the favorites tag.
The Florida Panthers can currently be found at odds of +700. This would be their first Stanley Cup win, as their only appearance to date came when they lost out in the Finals in 1996. The Panthers lead the way in the Eastern Division right now, with a 7-2-1 record in their last ten games.
Further down the list, we can see the Calgary Flames as one of the teams at +1000. They have a solitary Stanley Cup to their name but are looking good this year and have just enjoyed an impressive 3-0 win against the Detroit Red Wings. They are comfortably clear at the top of the Pacific Division and Calgary’s fans will be looking forward to the postseason action.
Another team sitting at +1000 odds, the Caroline Hurricanes are looking for a second Stanley Cup triumph. They haven’t been letting in many goals and are at the top of the Metropolitan Division, where the Flyers have been struggling. The Canes recently lost to the Toronto Maple Leafs by 3 goals to 2. More positively, Finnish forward Jesperi Kotkaniemi is said to be close to signing an eight-year extension deal to his contract.
The Toronto Maple Leafs are one of the few other teams to be considered as having a realistic chance of winning the trophy, with odds of +1100. They currently sit third in the Pacific Division, behind the Panthers and the Lightning. In the last few days, the team from Toronto have boosted their chances of glory by trading two players from the Seattle Kraken, defenseman Mark Giordano and forward Colin Blackwell.
It seems highly unlikely that the Flyers have a successful end to this season, but their fans are already looking forward to next season with optimism.
