Hurricanes favored over Golden Knights in Stanley Cup Final - ESPN

Having finally gotten over the conference finals hump, the Carolina Hurricanes will be favored to win the championship as they head into their first Stanley Cup Final since 2006.

Following Friday night's decisive Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals, the Hurricanes opened as -155 favorites to win the Stanley Cup and the Vegas Golden Knights opened at +130, according to DraftKings odds. Those odds remained unchanged as of Saturday morning.

Carolina and Vegas were two of the most favored teams by sportsbooks throughout the regular season and playoffs, with the former entering the campaign as a +750 co-favorite and the latter starting close behind at +900. The Canes were a second-best +475 at the beginning of the postseason, while the Golden Knights were a fourth-best 10-1.

Those prolonged short odds mean that U.S. sportsbooks aren't carrying much future liability on either team as they head into the Final. Carolina is the second-most-bet team by handle at DraftKings, and top three for wagers and money at BetMGM, but it attracted significantly less than the Colorado Avalanche — who had come into the playoffs as the clear favorite — at both books.

Caesars Sportsbook hockey lead Karry Shreeve told ESPN at the beginning of the postseason that he was keeping the Hurricanes short at his book due to their very impressive underlying analytics, but that they didn't catch the attention of the betting public due to the perception that they consistently fell short in the playoffs.

The Golden Knights have also been decently supported in BetMGM's and DraftKings' future books, but not enough to cause any significant caution. Where the Las Vegas-based sportsbooks such as BetMGM and Caesars get into trouble is with the Golden Knights'