Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Rangers as underdogs? Brad Richards doesn’t think so

Montreal Canadiens v New York Rangers - Game Six

NEW YORK, NY - MAY 29: Brad Richards #19 of the New York Rangers celebrates after defeating the Montreal Canadiens in Game Six to win the Eastern Conference Final in the 2014 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at Madison Square Garden on May 29, 2014 in New York City. The New York Rangers defeated the Montreal Canadiens 1 to 0. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

Getty Images

Now that the Stanley Cup Final is set between the New York Rangers and Los Angeles Kings, it’s L.A. who is the favorite to win it all.

With that being the case as the series begins on Wednesday night from Staples Center, Rangers alternate captain Brad Richards isn’t buying into any talk of his team being an underdog as Andrew Gross of Ranger Rants shared.

“I feel like when you get to the Stanley Cup final, you have a 50/50 chance of winning,” Richards said. “The underdog thing and the favorite thing really doesn’t mean anything in the locker rooms. You have to go out and play.”

The fun part of the whole favorite vs. underdog setup is that both teams have been, more or less, underdogs all playoffs long.

The Kings were the lower seed in each of the first three rounds and the Rangers only had home-ice advantage in the first round against the Philadelphia Flyers.

Oddsmakers may disagree that this series is a ’50/50' toss-up. It was expected that whether it was the Kings or Chicago Blackhawks that won the Western Conference they’d be big favorites against the Rangers. If New York needed any further motivation, perhaps being big time underdogs will do the trick.

Follow @JoeYerdonPHT