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2023 Stanley Cup Champion Odds: Avalanche Heavy Favorites to Repeat Following Dominant Run Last Season

The Tampa Bay Lightning have been the cream of the crop in the NHL for the past five years, but perhaps their was a changing of the guard in the 2021-22 season.

After dominating the regular season and winning The President’s Cup for most points in the Western Conference, the Colorado Avalanche cruised through the Stanley Cup Playoffs en route to winning their first championship since 2001.

The Avalanche now find themselves as large betting favorites to repeat as champions, with a pretty big cushion between them and other powerhouses such as the Lightning, Toronto Maple Leafs, Carolina Hurricanes and Florida Panthers.

Check out the full Stanley Cup odds ahead of the season below:

This season, the Avalanche know they'll be the hunted and get every team's best effort night-in and night-out.

“No. 1, I think if you win, you remember the success at the end of the year,” Avs coach Jared Bednar stressed via The Denver Post. “And it’s easy to forget just how hard it was to get there and all the sacrifices you have to make as a team and how you have to come together in order to get there. That’s a reminder that I think we can give to one another on a daily basis or weekly basis.

“It’s a long, tough road, and our guys are gonna have to be willing to climb the mountain again and do all the right things, because we’re starting fresh here.

“And you know, it’s a little bit of a different group. But there (are) a lot of guys that are back and in similar roles. … So we should be able to pick up where we left off in (that). But it’ll be a grind.”

The Avalanche lost some key contributors to their 2022 Stanley Cup team, including forward Nazem Kadri (Calgary), goaltender Darcy Kuemper (Washington) and wing Andre Burakovsky (Seattle). Still, the core players such as Nathan MacKinnon, Mike Rantenen, Gabe Landeskog, Cale Makar, Erik Johnson and Devon Toews remain in Colorado.

“I didn’t know how I was going to feel after we won,” the veteran Johnson said. “But I’m so excited. I just want to do it all over again.

“I mean, it was such a blast. Every guy that locker room’s dream came true. And the only way to top it (is) doing it again. I think we have a team that can do it again.”

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