College football betting players are gearing up for their season to start, but on the ice, NHL betting players still have a ways to go before the campaign begins for the 2010-11 season. Here’s an early look at how the season may shake out.

Eastern Conference
Seventh-seeded Philadelphia came out of the East last year, but that won’t happen again. Washington and Pittsburgh ran into a hot Montreal team in the playoffs, and one of those teams will represent the East in the Cup finals this year. The Capitals will be out to prove they’re not the East version of the Sharks, while we think Sindey Crosby and a few other Penguins were tired from the Olympics (although that’s no excuse). If we had to choose, we’d take Pittsburgh’s goaltending.

Western Conference
Never again should anyone bet on San Jose….ever. The West will be fought between Chicago, who lost a few players from their Cup-winning team, and Vancouver, who need to add a second line to their team. But don’t count out a resurgent Detroit, who were arguably the best team in the league over the second half of the regular season.

Stanley Cup
We think Pittsburgh and Detroit will meet in the Cup final for the third time in four seasons, as the Red Wings have experience, and Jimmy Howard will be sharper in goal. The Red Wings will win this last Stanley Cup, ending this Nicklas Lidstrom-led dynasty, and it wouldn’t be surprising if you could get great sports betting odds for them at the start of the year.

Created in 1893, by Lord Stanley of Preston, the Stanley Cup Trophy has become the most difficult prize to win in all of sports. Fans betting on the prize have experienced many highs and lows ever since the first trophy holders, the Montreal Hockey Club, won the Stanley Cup in 1894. In the early years of the Cups establishment, it was easier for fans betting, to wager on which team would win the cup as there were fewer teams to choose from. Presently, the Stanley Cup is vied for by 30 teams, making it much more difficult to accurately wager on which club will win the trophy.

Although the Stanley Cup was officially created in 1893, the idea for a hockey trophy was thought of a year earlier by Lord Stanley, as along with his family, they fell in love with the game of hockey in 1889 after attending a winter festival in Montreal. Stanley believed that a championship cup trophy should be played for annually, with the top team having the honour of having their team name, player’s names and ownership engraved on the trophy.

Some of the traditions regarding the Stanley Cup, along with engraving ones name on it after winning, also include the championship being playing in a series in the beginning of June, as well as the winning team being allotted 100 days to keep the Cup. As noted above the winning club has their names engraved on the cup to prove that they were the champions of the specific year they won. Secondly, the Stanley Cup is awarded to the winning team in the beginning of June after two month playoff tournament, between the top 16 teams in the league who qualified after the regular season. Thirdly, after the Stanley Cup is won, players from the winning team are given 100 days to hold onto the trophy and display it to family and friends in their hometowns. After the 100 days are up, the following season begins with the defending Stanley Cup champions competing against the other teams for another chance to win the most prestigious trophy.