Capitals have sixth-best odds to win Stanley Cup after restart announcement

The Washington Capitals have 11-to-1 odds to win the 2020 Stanley Cup following the NHL announcing its 24-team return-to-play format Tuesday.

Caesars Sportsbook pegged a trio of contenders as co-favorites: the Boston Bruins, Tampa Bay Lightning and Vegas Golden Knights, all at 6-to-1.

The Colorado Avalanche come in at 8-to-1 and the defending champion St. Louis Blues are 9-to-1.

In the new format, the top four teams in each conference are guaranteed spots in the traditional 16-team Stanley Cup Playoffs field, but they must play a round robin within their conference to determine seeding. The Capitals will go up against co-favorites Boston and Tampa Bay as well as Philadelphia, which has 14-to-1 Cup odds.

Naturally, the teams not guaranteed a berth — teams that must beat an opponent in a best-of-five “qualifying round” series — have longer odds. Despite this, the Pittsburgh Penguins, the No. 5 team in the East, still check in at 15-to-1 to win the Cup.

The Capitals finished the regular season with 90 points in 69 games (41-20-8), eking out the Flyers by one point to win the Metropolitan Division for the fifth year running. But Washington’s performance was teetering a bit in the winter months and the division was highly competitive, with the Flyers, Penguins, New York Islanders and Carolina Hurricanes all in contention.

It’s unknown when or even if the NHL will get its 24-team tournament off the ground due to the coronavirus pandemic. The league’s announcement Tuesday made it the first of the “big four” North American sports leagues to formalize some important details of how it would return to action this year.