When Stanley Cup odds opened on June 26 – minutes after the Colorado Avalanche defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final – the New Jersey Devils were an afterthought, buried at +8000 (24th-shortest odds) after missing the playoffs for the fourth straight season and ninth time in the last 10 seasons.
Three and a half months later, on the first day of the 2022-23 NHL regular-season (Oct. 5), the Devils were still buried at +6600, but, in the eyes of the betting public, they weren't an afterthought. They held a 2.7% share of the tickets, i.e., 2.7% of all bets on the Stanley Cup champion since June 26.'
The Devils had the 22nd-shortest odds, but the eighth-largest ticket share as the public delivered the largest disproportionate vote of confidence in Stanley Cup betting. Their odds-to-tickets rank difference of +14 was the best among all teams.'
The @NJDevils kept things rolling on the road Saturday, improving to 17-2-1 as the visitors this season to establish an NHL benchmark.#NHLStats: https://t.co/P011uxPRer pic.twitter.com/Zd2WOLpHxk