Now that the Stanley Cup Final is set between the New York Rangers and Los Angeles Kings, it’s L.A. who is the favorite to win it all.
With that being the case as the series begins on Wednesday night from Staples Center, Rangers alternate captain Brad Richards isn’t buying into any talk of his team being an underdog as Andrew Gross of Ranger Rants shared.
“I feel like when you get to the Stanley Cup final, you have a 50/50 chance of winning,” Richards said. “The underdog thing and the favorite thing really doesn’t mean anything in the locker rooms. You have to go out and play.”
The fun part of the whole favorite vs. underdog setup is that both teams have been, more or less, underdogs all playoffs long.
The Kings were the lower seed in each of the first three rounds and the Rangers only had home-ice advantage in the first round against the Philadelphia Flyers.
Oddsmakers may disagree that this series is a ’50/50' toss-up. It was expected that whether it was the Kings or Chicago Blackhawks that won the Western Conference they’d be big favorites against the Rangers. If New York needed any further motivation, perhaps being big time underdogs will do the trick.
