The 2017-18 NHL season is less than two weeks old, but for the Detroit Red Wings, it couldn’t have gotten off to a better start. Many NHL experts predicted that the Red Wings will once again be on the outside looking in when the postseason rolls around again next April. That may be just the kind of motivation the Red Wings need to prove them wrong.

Strong start good sign for young Red Wings

Make way for your 2018 Stanley Cup champion Detroit Red Wings! Okay, while five games hardly make up a season, so far the Wings are proving their skeptics wrong with their nice 4-1 start to the new year.

What’s more impressive is that Detroit has won three of their first four road contests, including victories on back-to-back nights over Arizona and Las Vegas.

The Detroit Red Wings aren’t used to being home during the NHL playoffs. The Wings had their 25-year consecutive playoff streak snapped last season, and it is something they do not want to get used to. With a nice mix of youth and veterans, Detroit is determined to rise once again.

Penguins favored to three-peat

Online sportsbook Bovada has the Pittsburgh Penguins listed as the team to beat for the third straight season. Pittsburgh currently sits at 8-1 odds to once again be planning a celebration parade next spring. If the Penguins do win the Stanley Cup again, they will be in rare air when it comes to hockey history.

Pittsburgh will try to become the first team to pull off the hard task of three-peating since the New York Islanders pulled off the feat back in the early 1980s. If Pittsburgh does win a third championship in a row, it may be remembered as the toughest one of all, as they are without their former star goaltender, Marc-Andre Fleury, who was an important piece of Pittsburgh’s back-to-back Cup-winning club.

If the Red Wings win the Stanley Cup this season, it would be considered to be one of the biggest upsets in sports history. Detroit is on virtually nobody's radar when it comes to hoisting the Cup next June. In fact, the Red Wings are listed at their highest odds to start a season in over 20 years.

The Red Wings are currently listed at +7500, meaning a $100 wager would win you $7,500.

Now that is a nice return for a $100 investment! Can the Wings shock the hockey world? Sure, why not? After all, when it comes to the NHL playoffs, the team with the hot goalie at the time usually makes a good run toward the championship and the Wings have two better than average goalies in Jimmy Howard and Petr Mrázek.

Hey, they are 4-1, let a guy dream!

Here are the current odds for the top 10 teams to win the 2018 Stanley Cup according to Oddsshark.

  • Pittsburgh Penguins +800
  • Edmonton Oilers +800
  • Tampa Bay Lightning +1100
  • Chicago Blackhawks +1200
  • Washington Capitals +1400
  • Dallas Stars +1400
  • Nashville Predators +1400
  • Toronto Maple Leafs +1400
  • Anaheim Ducks +1400
  • Minnesota Wild +1600
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