Yesterday, Kings head coach Darryl Sutter raised some eyebrows by saying his team was the underdog going into Friday’s Game 7 versus the Ducks in Anaheim.
It really raised Bruce Boudreau’s eyebrows, because Boudreau insists his Ducks are the true underdogs.
From TSN’s Mark Masters:Boudreau on Sutter calling Kings “big underdogs” in Game 7: “You guys write that stuff? Does anybody believe [that]?”
— Mark Masters (@markhmasters) May 15, 2014
Boudreau: “You can ask anybody here who they think the under-dog is & the under-dog’s us.”
— Mark Masters (@markhmasters) May 15, 2014
Boudreau: “I thought it was pretty funny when Darryl said that & he actually said it with a straight face.”
— Mark Masters (@markhmasters) May 15, 2014
Just to be clear, it seems obvious that neither team is an underdog (or overdog, if that exists) -- they’re about as evenly-matched as you would expect from two bitter divisional foes going to Game 7 after being tied 13-13 on aggregate through the first six games of the series.
The Ducks have won four home games this postseason, the Kings have won four road games this postseason. The Ducks have the sixth-best power play, the Kings have the seventh. See where I’m going here? There’s just not much to choose between the two.
Online oddsmaker Bovada agrees. The Kings are slight underdogs at 1/1 for tomorrow’s Game 7 while the Ducks are at 5/6.