Check out the initial 2016 Stanley Cup odds for each of the NHL playoff teams.

The NHL postseason is about to begin. Each of the 16 NHL playoff teams and their seeding have been set. The fun begins on Wednesday April 13 when the first games will take place. Check out the opening odds for each team. Odds are as listed on Bovoda.

Leading the way with the best odds to win Lord Stanley are the Washington Capitals. They are 4/1 odds to win the Cup. Just behind the Capitals at 7/1 odds to win the Stanley Cup are the Los Angeles Kings. The reigning Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks have 15/2 odds to repeat while the Pacific Division champion Anaheim Ducks have 8/1 odds to win Bruce Boudreau his first Stanley Cup.
Central Division runner up Dallas Stars have 8/1 odds to win the Stanley Cup for the first time since Brett Hull’s controversial goal. Coming in with 9/1 odds are the Pittsburgh Penguins, a popular pick to win the Stanley Cup. The St. Louis Blues are entering the playoffs with momentum and 10/1 odds to bring home their first ever Stanley Cup.
Many people had the New York Rangers as their Stanley Cup favorites entering the season. They have 16/1 odds to win their first Stanley Cup since 1994. The San Jose Sharks also have 16/1 odds but they will have to get past the Los Angeles Kings in the first round.
This year’s Cinderella team, the Florida Panthers, have 20/1 odds and so do their division rival Tampa Bay Lightning. The Nashville Predators are a Stanley Cup dark horse, carrying 25/1 odds to win the Cup.
Bringing up the back are the New York Islanders with 25/1 odds, the Minnesota Wild with 28/1 odds, the Detroit Red Wings with 33/1 odds, and the Philadelphia Flyers with 33/1 odds.
For more NHL Playoffs coverage, be sure to check out our hub page.

Strategists: Paris climate deal could amount to 'red herring

President Obama will get his wish next week at the United Nations with dozens of countries committing to sign, and thus ratify, the Paris climate change deal.
But the signatures would take away a key piece of leverage from developing nations to hold the countries to account, resulting in a deal that is more symbolism than substance.
Strategists had recommended that developing nations not rush into signing the deal and, instead, wait out developed countries until they cough up funding for the Green Climate Fund, alongside a number of other obligations under the deal.
"Not signing now keeps the pressure up on developed countries to deliver on their promises and to leverage the outcomes and positions that are vital for developing countries in meeting their obligations under the [Paris accord]," the think tank Third World Network said in a recent memo.

Obama to meet Monday with Fed Chair Yellen

President Obama will meet with Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen Monday, just a month after the central banker's last trip to the White House.
Obama and Yellen will talk about the long-term economic outlook as well as the state of banking reform, according to the White House. Vice President Joe Biden is also slated to attend.
When they last met in March, Yellen was among a group of financial regulators who met with Obama to discuss the status of the president's financial reform law, which passed in 2010 and is still being implemented. Obama used the occasion to make the case that his efforts have been successful in reining in big banks and strengthening the financial system.
Yellen is in the middle of an effort to transition the central bank away from emergency monetary policies put in place during the financial crisis toward more normal management of the money supply.

Kerry will not apologize for U.S. dropping nuclear bomb during Hiroshima visit

Secretary of State John Kerry will not apologize during a visit to Hiroshima Sunday for the United States' nuclear attack on Japan in 1945.

The Associated Press reported a State Department official said Kerry would not apologize for dropping the first nuclear bomb on Hiroshima, which killed as many as 140,000 people, 70 years ago. Kerry is in Japan for the G-7 summit and will take time to visit the Peace Memorial Park and Museum.

Kerry is the most senior American government official to visit the park, according to the AP. In lieu of apologizing, Kerry will use the visit to push President Obama's desire for a nuclear bomb-free world, the report stated.

The U.S. dropped the first nuclear bomb in history on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945. The massive blast incinerated about 70,000 people immediately and killed many more over the years due to the long-lasting effects of radiation released by the explosion.

EPA enlists churches, faith community in climate change war

Former President George W. Bush's administration gets the credit for branding the "faith-based initiative," but President Obama's team at the Environmental Protection Agency has taken the idea to a new level, working with faith communities to fight climate change.
"The faith community has been very engaged in climate change discussions for many years, and they have been very active," EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said. "Clearly, religious leaders across the board, I think you know about Pope Francis, but others have really been speaking out about the moral obligation of acting on climate," she said.But it's not pie in the sky talk, she added, explaining that the effort begun in January and adopted by dozens of churches and faith institutions is a realistic program to cut methane emissions by curbing food waste.

Friedrichs teachers ask Supreme Court for rehearing

The plaintiffs in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association have requested that the Supreme Court grant them a new hearing, saying the case's issue, the constitutionality of mandatory union fees for workers in public-sector unions, was too important to leave unresolved after a divided court failed to reach a verdict late last month.
"To leave the questions presented unresolved would needlessly prolong the prevailing uncertainty on issues that recur constantly and that affect millions of public employees in the more than 20 states that allow agency fees. Moreover, the schemes at issue implicate hundreds of millions of dollars flowing to organizations that spend those dollars advocating on matters of clear public concern," the 11 plaintiffs argued in a Friday petition.
The high-profile case involved whether the court should overturn a 1977 precedent called Abood v. Detroit Board of Education that said that government entities could enter into labor contracts that require their workers to have to join a union or pay it a regular fee, called an "agency fee." The plaintiffs in Friedrichs argued that violated dissenting workers' rights.
The court's oral arguments in January indicated there may have been a majority to overturn Abood, which would have been a major blow to public-sector unions by depriving them a major revenue source. That apparently changed when Antonin Scalia, the court's leading conservative, suddenly died in February.