Inspired by Aidan’s NBA Championship post, I did a deep dive into the criteria for Stanley Cup Champions. Historically, cup champions had 6/8 of the following categories: - Top-6 Overall Regular Season Record - Win Percentage Above .600 - Top-6 in Goal Differential - Top-6 in Goals Against per Game - Top-6 in Power Play Percentage - Top-6 in Penalty Kill Percentage - Elite Goaltending (.920+ SV% or Vezina/Hart finalist) - Top-6 in Expected Goals Percentage (xG%)​ This year, the following teams have the strongest chances to win: Winnipeg Jets 8/8 (+1000) Washington Capitals 7/8 (+1100) Vegas Golden Knights 7/8 (+900) Carolina Hurricanes 6/8 (+650) Florida Panthers 6/8 (+750)

For every NBA game, BettingPros provides a spread and total points projection, each rated on a 1 to 5-star confidence scale: 5 Star: Dallas/Sacramento O213.5 4 Star: Miami/Chicago O219 3 Star: Miami/Chicago: CHI -1 2 Star: Dallas/Sacramento: SAC -4.5 Over the past two months, I’ve tracked the BettingPros projection model and found a ~54% hit rate on spread bets and ~52% on over/under picks.

Carolina Hurricanes vs. Montreal Canadiens: Canadiens ML (-118) Anaheim Ducks vs. Winnipeg Jets: Ducks Team Total U2 (+105) Edmonton Oilers vs. San Jose Sharks: Oilers -1.5 (+118) Over the past two months, I’ve tracked the BettingPros projection model and have found their NHL picks to have a ~50% hit rate.