The San Jose Sharks have won the Pacific division for the last 3 years and I don’t expect this year to be any different. This is why when I saw the Bookmaker.com sports betting odds for the Sharks to repeat as Pacific division champs set at +110 I had to jump on the opportunity and place a wager. This means that Bookmaker.com thinks there is a less than 50% chance that the San Jose Sharks get the most points in the Pacific division over the course of this 2010-11 season. I personally have the Sharks chances set around 80%, so with this discrepancy it was an easy bet for me to make.
Prediction: San Jose Sharks to Win Pacific Division
Odds: +110
Bet on the Sharks Now at Bookmaker.com!
The Sharks have been able to keep their team together since the past season, minus Evgeni Nabokov. This means that teams core, which includes Thornton, Marleau, Heatley, Pavelski, Setoguchi and Boyle, is still intact. Add two solid goaltenders in Nittymaki and Stanley Cup champion Niemi and you have a team that should be strong in all aspects. San Jose has proven time and time again that they can put up big points in the regular season and I don’t expect this year to be any different.
The Sharks main competition for this division title will be the Los Angeles Kings and possibly the Phoenix Coyotes. I personally think that the Kings are the only team with a chance at taking the division crown from the Sharks and I don’t think they are ready just yet. The Kings are still a young team with a core of Kopitar, Doughty and Dustin Brown. Their goaltending situation is up in the air with Quick being in consistent and Bernier possibly taking over the job as a rookie. The Kings should at least make it a race this year, but they just won’t have the consistency to compete with a team that got 12 more points than them last year in the Sharks.
The Coyotes weren’t a flash in the pan last year, but they are at best an above average team. Phoenix rises and falls with the play of Ilya Bryzgalov and I don’t think he can play any better than he did last year when the Coyotoes rolled to 107 points. Expect Phoenix to achieve around 95 points this season; not enough to win the division.
As you can probably tell this San Jose Sharks division winners bet is a sure thing in my head. You can decide if it’s a sure thing for you.
Tagged with: NHL betting • pacific division • predictions • San Jose Sharks • winner
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