The 2014-15 NHL campaign officially began on Wednesday with the first regular-season games. In approximately eight months we'll be crowing a Stanley Cup Champion. The two most recent cup winners, Chicago and Los Angeles, are expected to be the cream of the crop yet again. Meanwhile, we're much, much closer to handing out hardware to baseball's best.

Odds provided by Sportsbook.ag

Stanley Cup

Chicago Blackhawks (+600) - Chicago won it all in 2013 for the second time in four years and appeared to be on its way back to the Stanley Cup Finals last season before blowing a Game 7 lead against the Kings. The Blackhawks have most of the team intact, including Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews, and Patrick Sharp.

Los Angeles Kings (+750) - L.A. has lifted the cup two of the last three years and has not lost prior to the Western Conference Finals since 2011. It has not missed the playoffs since the 2008-09 campaign. Jonathan Quick is back in goal for the Kings, who lost their opener 4-0 to San Jose on Wednesday.

Boston Bruins (+800) - Boston's 54-19-9 mark in 2013-14 gave the team the best record in the entire NHL. The Bruins, looking for their first Stanley Cup since 2011 after finishing runner-up to Chicago in 2013, will once again be led by Patrice Bergeron and Zdeno Chara. They opened on Wednesday with a 2-1 win over Philadelphia.

Pittsburgh Penguins (+1000) - Pittsburgh won the Stanley Cup in 2008-09, but just one triumph in nine years of the Sidney Crosby era has to be considered a bit of a disappointment. The Penguins are 4-4 in their last eight playoff series since capturing the cup. They should always be in the mix, though, with Crosby and Evgeni Malkin on board.

World Series

Baltimore Orioles (+200) - Have World Series odds ever been this close among the four teams heading into the two league championship series? Perhaps not. There is no clear favorite, nor is there any obvious underdog. In Baltimore's three-game sweep of Detroit, Nelson Cruz batted .500 with two home runs, five RBIs, and 12 total bases.

St. Louis Cardinals (+280) - This team has something the two American League hopefuls lack: experience. St. Louis has been to the playoffs four straight years and has reached the league championship series every time. It won the World Series in 2011 and finished runner-up to Boston last season.

Kansas City Royals (+300) - Royals fans can't party like it's 1985 until they win the World Series, but they have had plenty of reasons to go crazy of late. Kansas City posted a miracle wild-card win over Oakland then brought out the broomsticks to eliminate the Angels. The Royals hit .198 in the series, but their pitching dominated to the tune of a 1.74 ERA.

San Francisco Giants (+300) - Like St. Louis, San Francisco is no stranger to this situation. The Giants won the World Series in 2010 and 2012. They are by no means a dominant force in 2014, but the snagged a wild-card spot and have been rolling ever since. After destroying Pittsburgh in the play-in game, San Fran took care of Washington in four.

World Series of Poker

Jorryt van Hoof (+250) - The "November Nine" is set, and the nine finalists at the Main Event will battle for poker's top prize on Nov. 10. Van Hoof is the chip leader with 38,375,000-or 19.5 percent of the total chips in play. The 31-year-old Dutchman has only three previous WSOP cashes, totaling $27,956.

Felix Stephenson (+350) - An even more unlikely leader is Stephenson, who is second in the chip count with 32,775,000-the only other player aside from van Hoof who is above the 30,000,000 mark. The 23-year-old Norwegian has never cashed at a WSOP event and has just $22,118 in career live earnings.

Mark Newhouse (+400) - Newhouse is third in chips with 26,000,000, one of five finalists who has more than 20,000,000. A proven winner, the 29-year-old American has become the first player since Dan Harrington in 2003-04 to reach back-to-back Main Event final tables, and Newhouse has done it amidst exponentially bigger fields.

Dan Sindelar (+450) - Sindelar has the fifth-most chips with 21,200,000, just behind fourth-place Andoni Larrabe's 22,550,000. The 30-year-old American has 17 previous WSOP cashes totaling $227,791. His overall career earnings stand at $527,779.

LeBron James Regular-Season Specials

Score 50+ points in a game (-162) - LeBron has 10 games of 50 or more points in his career, which is an average of less than one per season, for those counting. He accomplished the feat only twice with the Heat, most recently with a career-high 61 points in a win over Charlotte on March 4 of this year.

Cavs to sweep Heat (+350) - Circle your calendars for Christmas Day (that one, especially), Feb. 11, March 16, and April 2. Those are the dates on which LeBron will face his former team. It is a new era in South Beach, but the Heat still have Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh plus newcomer Luol Deng. Miami will not be an easy place to play for opponents.

5 or more triple-doubles (+400) - LeBron has 37 triple-doubles in 11 NBA seasons (not including 11 more in the playoffs). At that pace he would not get five in a season, but playing with Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving could help. With that kind of supporting cast, you have to think LeBron's assist totals will be up.

Average 30+ points per game (+1000) - The downside of playing with Love and Irving is that LeBron's scoring totals could be down. There are only so many basketballs (one) to go around and so many shots to be taken in a game. King James has averaged 30 or more points only twice, and that was when he led a Cleveland team on which he was a one-man show.

Read more articles by Ricky Dimon