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

Olympic odds: Crosby, Ovechkin co-favorites for MVP

ovechkincrosbyhandshake

James

Canada’s Sidney Crosby and Russia’s Alex Ovechkin are the favorites to win tournament MVP at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, according to online oddsmaker Bovada.

Crosby and Ovechkin both came in at 7/1, followed by U.S. forward Patrick Kane, at 10/1. The field looks like this:

Alexander Ovechkin (RUS) 7/1
Sidney Crosby (CAN) 7/1
Patrick Kane (USA) 10/1
Evgeni Malkin (RUS) 12/1
Henrik Lundqvist (SWE) 15/1
Henrik Zetterberg (SWE) 15/1
Zach Parise (USA) 18/1
Tuukka Rask (FIN) 18/1
Ryan Miller (USA) 18/1
Ilya Kovalchuk (RUS) 20/1
Roberto Luongo (CAN) 20/1
Jonathan Quick (USA) 25/1
Jonathan Toews (CAN) 25/1
Steven Stamkos (CAN) 25/1
Semyon Varlamov (RUS) 25/1
Carey Price (CAN) 30/1
Pavel Datsyuk (RUS) 30/1
Phil Kessel (USA) 30/1
John Tavares (CAN) 30/1
Sergei Bobrovsky (RUS) 35/1
Erik Karlsson (SWE) 40/1
Antti Niemi (FIN) 40/1
Niklas Backstrom (FIN) 40/1
Henrik Sedin (SWE) 40/1
Ryan Getzlaf (CAN) 40/1
Ryan Kesler (USA) 40/1
Daniel Sedin (SWE) 40/1
Corey Perry (CAN) 40/1
Patrick Sharp (CAN) 50/1
Daniel Alfredsson (SWE) 50/1
Joe Pavelski (USA) 50/1
Marian Hossa (SLO) 50/1
David Krejci (CZE) 50/1
Alexander Steen (SWE) 75/1
Marian Gaborik (SLO) 75/1
Rick Nash (CAN) 75/1
Loui Eriksson (SWE) 90/1
Mikko Koivu (FIN) 90/1
Valtteri Filppula (FIN) 100/1
Jaromir Jagr (CZE) 100/1
Jussi Jokinen (FIN) 150/1
Teemu Selanne (FIN) 150/1

Some quick thoughts:

-- The MVP doesn’t always come from the gold medal-winning team. In fact, the last two MVPs (Miller and Finland’s Antero Niittymakki) were on the silver-medal winning sides; the last guy to win MVP and gold was Canada’s Joe Sakic in 2002.

-- Toews (25/1) led Canada in scoring at the ’10 Games in Vancouver.

-- Karlsson (40/1) leads all NHL defensemen in scoring (53 points) and should play huge minutes on the Swedish blueline.

-- If Quick gets the nod over Miller for the U.S. No. 1 gig in Sochi, he’s really good value at 25/1.

-- Just a reminder that Finland won bronze in Vancouver, silver in Turin and silver in Nagano. The Finns always seem to be in medal contention, but I wouldn’t recommend betting on Niklas Backstrom because, you know, he’s not on the team and stuff.