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PHT Oddsmaker: Let’s gamble on the NHL

Comerica Park

PHT Oddsmaker will be a regular feature where we set pretend odds and pretend to gamble on them. If you’d like to bet real money, meet us in the alley and we’ll talk.

Odds the 2013 Winter Classic is held in Detroit at Comerica Park (-120)

Ask most fans where an outdoor hockey game hosted by the Red Wings should be played and they’ll say Michigan Stadium, aka the Big House. Last December, the Michigan Wolverines and Michigan State Spartans played in front of an announced crowd of 113,411. It was quite the spectacle. But here’s why I’d bet on Comerica Park, the home of MLB’s Tigers – the Ilitch family owns the Tigers and Red Wings, and it operates Comerica Park. The baseball stadium’s also downtown, not 45 miles away in Ann Arbor. Of course, for Comerica Park to host the Winter Classic, Detroit has to be awarded the game first. But based on the speculation, that’s all but a done deal.

Odds Boston’s Brad Marchand has a fight Saturday versus the Canucks (+300)

We wrote about the upcoming Stanley Cup rematch earlier today, making specific reference to the Marchand angle. Vancouver has all the motive it needs to go after the Bruins’ pesky forward for repeatedly jabbing Daniel Sedin in the face at the end of Game 6. Though Marchand isn’t a frequent scrapper, he’s dropped the gloves twice this season, once with PK Subban, the other with Matt Niskanen. Who could he fight on the Canucks? Kevin Bieksa would love to beat on Marchand and maybe he’ll try, but that would be a mismatch. Dale Weise fights, but he’s new to the Canucks. Keith Ballard is a potential candidate. Heck, Maxim Lapierre has a couple of scraps on his card. Maybe those two could engage in a rat fight. (Cheese and tails everywhere.) With +300 odds, I’ll take this bet.

Odds Seattle gets an NHL team in the next 5 years (+300)

Elliotte Friedman wrote about the possibility this week, thus the odds. Seattle’s an interesting potential NHL market. The league would no doubt love to put a franchise in the backyard of companies like Microsoft, Amazon, and Starbucks. But make no mistake – most sports fans in that city want the NBA back before they want an NHL team. So if a new arena gets built – and that’s still a big if – chances are a basketball team will follow. And if a basketball team follows, would Seattle be able to support the NBA, NFL, MLB, MLS, NCAA and NHL? I’ll stay away from this one. It might happen in 10 years, but I don’t see anything imminent. (I hope I’m wrong though.)