The Phoenix Coyotes won their first division crown ever, home-ice advantage in the first round of the 2012 NHL Playoffs, and a sweeping wave of momentum.

So, naturally, oddsmakers are choosing the Chicago Blackhawks.

Yep. Despite the most-successful regular season in franchise history, the Coyotes are actually underdogs to beat the Blackhawks in the first round. Even more, they’re huge longshots to win the Stanley Cup itself. Bovada’s NHL Futures Betting Odds, Phoenix has 28/1 odds to capture the league championship, only ahead of the Washington Capitals, Florida Panthers and Ottowa Senators. Such is life in the sportsbetting world where experience trumps new emergence.

To be fair, the last time the Phoenix franchise won a playoff series, it was 1987-88 when it was located in Winnipeg. Not exactly a championship pedigree. Since then, the franchise has last 12 playoff series – three of them in Game 7 – and history is certainly not on their side.

That’s the way its been all year, though.

“We’ve been laughing after someone told us we were the longest odds to win the Cup,” team captain Shane Doan said. “Those are the same people who picked us (to finish) 14th in the West before the season and here we are.

“We’ve never won a playoff series, but we’d never won a division either. It’s something you can’t wait to have the opportunity to answer. We have home ice and if we can win four of the next seven games we can put that stuff to bed as well.”

Phoenix actually matches up pretty well against Chicago, too. Over the last three seasons, the squad is 8-3-1 against the Blackhawks and have outscored them 32-26.

The Blackhawks, however, are clearly a safer bet after winning the Stanley Cup two years ago. According to Bovada, Chicago has the 18/1 odds to win the Stanley Cup.

Still both teams are buried deep in the leaderboard, with the Pittsburgh Penguins a sizeable 7/2 favorite and the Vancouver Canucks at 9/2.

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