The Stanley Cup Finals between the Philadelphia Flyers and Chicago Blackhawks has been exciting and competitive in sports betting. In fact, the series has been so good in online sports betting that Game 3 drew the largest TV audience for the Stanley Cup Finals on cable television in eight years.
Sports betting odds favored Chicago before the series began but the Flyers have made this a very tight series. After Chicago won the first two games of the finals it was expected that they would have an easy time but that has not been the case at all. Perhaps the close games and the fact that the Flyers are back in the series has made it popular. Game 3 got a 3.1 rating and averaged 3.6 million viewers on Versus. It was the most watched program in the history of the network.
The Stanley Cup Finals suffered a little bit on Sunday night since they were going up against the NBA Finals. That is never a good scenario for the NHL since the NBA attracts more viewers. Someone at the NHL wasn’t thinking when they made out the Game 5 schedule. The Stanley Cup Finals should do better for Game 6 as it is scheduled for Wednesday while the NBA is off that night. In fact, the Sunday night game was the only time that the NBA and NHL went head-to-head on the same day in the Finals.
The sports betting NHL odds favored the home team in each of the first five games of this series. Chicago was heavily favored at home while the Flyers were just slight favorites on their home ice. If home ice holds true then Chicago would win the series but the Flyers have shown the ability to be competitive and anything is possible. The Flyers have already made history in this year’s NHL playoffs as they rallied from a 3-0 deficit to beat Boston in seven games.
Game 6 of the NHL Stanley Cup Finals is Wednesday night in Philadelphia and the sports betting odds are very tight on this game. It could be the clincher for one team to win the Cup or the series could be headed for a Game 7 back in Chicago on Friday. The remaining games of the Stanley Cup Finals will be televised on NBC.