Professional sports teams continue their battle against the Covid-19 virus. Even leagues like the NBA and the NHL, who are playing all games in “bubble” locations, are encountering unforeseen problems.
The latest news comes yesterday from Rogers Place in Edmonton, one of the two locations that the NHL will restart their season in. There was water damage that came from a big storm.
Here’s a quote from the Oilers Entertainment Group, who owns the stadium (source ESPN).
“At this time are confident that it will not hamper our planning and preparation and we will be ready to host the return of NHL hockey as hub city. We will share more information as it becomes available”.
That statement sounds kind of ominous and definitely not reassuring. The NHL purposely chose Edmonton, Alberta, Canada as one of their locations (Toronto is the other) due to low amount of Covid-19 cases, especially compared to large US cities.
There is likely no way that the Edmonton location could be scrapped at this point and still have the season restart on August 1st as planned. That means it’s imperative that the stadium is ready to go.
NHL Odds are currently available
NHL Qualifying Series odds can already be found at Winning Poker Network sportsbooks. For example, Pittsburgh is -220 in their matchup against Montreal (+184). It is a best-of-five series.
Future odds to win the Stanley Cup are also available right now. The Tampa Bay Lightning (+535) are the leader, followed by the Boston Bruins (+690), Vegas Golden Knights (+873), Colorado Avalanche (+881) and defending champ St. Louis Blues (+900).
The Lightning are looking for their second Stanley Cup title in their history. The first came in the 2003-2004 season. These +535 odds look pretty tempting.
