Sports bettors need to remember that almost every year in the NHL playoffs there is a team that seems to forget how to lose on the road. Frequently those teams aren’t the ones that would be immediately obvious to casual bettors. That means that astute bettors can find nice value if (more…)

The shootout has become an important part of regular season NHL hockey, yet a lot of bettors give shootout performance almost no consideration when they are handicapping a hockey game. Because a significant number of games wind up in the shootout, being able to effectively handicap teams in the shootout could (more…)

Suspensions are a common thing in the NHL, and they seem to be occurring more and more regularly as the league attempts to crack down on every questionable element of the game. For bettors suspensions can be challenging to deal with, and it can be very easy to make mistakes in (more…)

When an NHL team that came into the season with high hopes struggles out of the gate the sports betting public can quickly turn negative. The media will write about why the team isn’t winning like they should, and the public will often assume that the team is doomed. It makes (more…)

Every year sports bettors who focus on the NHL see a couple of teams that are widely expected to be really bad that start out the season on a hot streak. Not only does it seem like they can’t lose, but they are playing with far more skill and polish then they (more…)

As a sports bettor, you need to be aware that weather is a factor in the NHL playoffs. That seems like a ridiculous statement, but it’s true. Bettors who are aware of the potential for weather issues in a game, and who can adjust accordingly, can give themselves a much needed (more…)

Hockey handicappers know that win streaks are very common in the NHL. A team that gets on a roll can string together six or eight wins in a row without a problem. When a team gets hot it doesn’t take long for the public to take notice – especially if it is (more…)

The NHL season goes through some subtle but significant changes from a sports betting perspective once the all star break happens. The season changes after the break, and the most successful bettors are the ones that can recognize those changes and figure out how to best exploit them for profit. For (more…)

I love betting on hockey. More significantly, I love betting on the puckline in hockey. Hockey doesn’t get nearly as much betting attention as other sports, and the lines aren’t set by most books until the morning of the game, so it is not at all uncommon to find a line (more…)

If you are drawn to betting championship futures in major sports then you should really be looking at the NHL. Stanley Cup futures are as attractive as any other – and more attractive than most – when you are looking for profitable ways to invest your money. The reason for that (more…)

Sports bettors need to understand that the NHL playoffs are the most grueling postseason test in sports. For two months players play brutally intense games. The team that wins the Stanley Cup has unquestionably earned it. For bettors the Stanley Cup playoffs aren’t as grueling, but they can be intense, and (more…)

Experienced sports bettors understand that injuries are an unfortunate but inevitable part of the NHL. As the game gets faster, players get stronger, and teams get more cautious with their assets we are seeing more and more players – especially really valuable players -miss long periods of time. Whenever a NHL superstar (more…)

The NHL season is just days away. For sports bettors that means that this is as good a time as any to be thinking about which season long NHL futures bets we want to place. Who is going to win the Stanley Cup? Which teams will win their conferences or their (more…)

It can be very difficult for handicappers to determine how a NHL team is going to perform down the stretch in the regular season once they have their playoff spot sewn up. Some hockey teams never take their feet off the accelerator, looking to build as much momentum as they possibly can (more…)

There is one big reason why betting on the NHL preseason is a good thing – almost no one else is doing it. Because it isn’t popular the betting lines are very soft, and you can find very nice value if you know where to look for it. Most people are (more…)

Every year in the NHL around January or February sports bettors see the same thing – a serious playoff contender that started strong slipping into a midseason slump. Actually, it typically happens a few times most years. Sometimes they shake things off and get right back into form after the losses. Other (more…)

Several times each season in the NHL a team will start a goalie out of the minor leagues that is making his first NHL appearance – or at least one of his first. For bettors this provides a real challenge. The assumption is often that these goalies are going to struggle. (more…)

As veteran hockey handicappers know, job security is become more and more of a luxury for coaches in the NHL every year as the pressure to win increases and the patience of management and ownership declines. It used to be that a coach would be given a few years, and that (more…)

For sports bettors, January 1 used to be all about bowl games. A few years ago, though, the NHL made the bold decision to stake a claim on the day. The league isn’t the most successful or popular, but this big gamble has paid off handsomely. The Winter Classic, played each (more…)

In the first round of the 2011 NHL playoffs there were a couple of very interesting lessons to be learned by NHL handicappers who are committed to long term success. Washington faced the Rangers and they were dominant. They cruised through in five games and looked like they were settling in (more…)

Each year in the NHL there are several teams that see their playoff dreams mathematically end well before the end of the regular season. That means that they have to play some games to finish the year that have no real meaning. For handicappers those games can be challenging. Most people (more…)

The NHL playoffs are an absolutely brutal test of teams. In order for a team to shine and hoist the Stanley Cup they need a few key things – excellent goaltending, depth, talent, and a whole lot of luck. Most significantly of all, though, a team that wins the Stanley Cup (more…)

Home ice advantage is a big factor in the NHL playoffs. If bettors aren’t careful, though, they can give it too much credit, or incorrectly determine what the impact will be. Here are six mistakes bettors make when looking at home ice advantage in the NHL playoffs. Avoiding these mistakes is (more…)

Power play and penalty killing is a big focus of importance for NHL teams, and it’s a big focus for a lot of handicappers as well. But are those statistics as useful in the NHL playoffs as they are in the regular season? Should they be handled differently in the postseason (more…)

The trade deadline in the NHL is by far the most active of any major sport. The coverage of the day makes it feel like a special event. There are typically literally dozens of trades done on the day and in the days right before the deadline. While many of those (more…)

Goalies are by far the single most important part of any hockey game. They are similar to starting pitchers in their importance in the outcome of a game. A hot goalie can salvage a lousy performance by a team, while a lousy outing can destroy great offensive play by the team. (more…)

The goalie is the most important player on the ice in a hockey game, so he is the single most important factor for bettors to look at when handicapping a game. If a handicapper is skilled at evaluating goalies and how they are likely to perform they are on the fast (more…)

People who don’t spend a lot of time betting on hockey – and even those who do – often have trouble determining what the role of goalies is in the outcome of games, and how to deal with them. In my view – or at least in a simplified view – (more…)

By the time the NHL season is about a quarter of the way over we tend to have a pretty good sense of how good teams are and about what we can expect from them. Inevitably, though, there are some teams that are still hard to figure out. The toughest are (more…)

One of the many things that make the NHL playoffs so great are the rare marathon games – the games that stretch into two, three or even more overtime periods. By the end of those games you can see that the guys can barely stand up, but they aren’t willing to (more…)

The NHL does a better job than most leagues of scheduling their playoff series so that the games are played at a balanced pace – a game every other day or so. Sometimes, though, there are situations that lead to an extended break of three or four days or even more (more…)

Hockey is a grueling, physical sport, so it is inevitable each NHL season that several teams will be forced to play for some period of time without their best player. The impact of a single player isn’t as significant in the NHL as it is in many other leagues, but the (more…)

Midseason coaching changes in the NHL are reasonably common. They are also more significant than in any other major league sport because of the immediate impact a coaching change can have. A new coach in the NHL is often to significantly improve the performance of the team in a short time. (more…)

The Stanley Cup finals are the best time of the year to be a hockey fan or a hockey bettor. The play is brilliant, the emotion is highly charged, and teams can and will do anything to win. It is great theater, and it is capped by the best trophy presentation (more…)

Coaches often get fired during the season in the NHL, and it is getting more and more common as teams get more expensive to run and owners get less patient as a result. When a coach is fired handicappers immediately have to try to figure out what is going to happen (more…)

If you are a hockey fan then there are few things you like more than a game seven in the playoffs. Everything is on the line, teams play like they have nothing to lose, and the hockey is very often incredibly memorable as a result. People who bet on hockey are (more…)

There are few situations tougher for a team to face in the NHL than being forced to playing for their lives after losing three games in a playoff series. Their margin for error is zero, and they know that with one more mistake and one more loss their season can be (more…)

Every year in the NHL it seems as if there is a team or two that improves dramatically and often unexpectedly from where they were the season before. It could be that they have gone from a totally irrelevant team to one that makes the playoffs, or from a team that (more…)

A lot of people who bet on hockey don’t pay a whole lot of attention to the beginning of training camp in the NHL. It’s not hard to be distracted from the start of things on the ice since the NFL and college football seasons are in full swing and baseball (more…)

At the beginning of every NHL season there are a few elite teams with serious Stanley Cup aspirations that really struggle out of the gate. Inevitably this will cause panic among the hockey media and the betting public. Sometimes these teams continue to have a poor season, but far more often (more…)

Each year in the NHL there are times when teams are forced out of their home buildings and on to the road for extended road trips. Some of those occasions are annual – like in November when the Blackhawks are replaced by the circus and the Oilers make way for the (more…)

The hockey season seems to go on forever, so by the time it ends even the most avid hockey fans and bettors are probably ready for a break. As soon as the Cup is hoisted most bettors are thinking ahead to other sports, other bets, and where their next action is (more…)

More than any other major sport there is a lot you can tell about a team in the NHL regarding their readiness to compete in the playoffs before the regular season even ends. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t still upsets or surprises in the NHL playoffs – there certainly are. (more…)

The NHL season is here. Each year more and more people discover the joy of betting on hockey. It really is a great sport to bet on – there are games virtually every day, the lines and totals offer lots of value, and there is more than enough information available to (more…)

Hockey isn’t nearly as much of a statistics-driven league as football, basketball, or especially baseball are. Stats are obviously recorded and available, but the stats aren’t nearly as sophisticated as they are for other sports. That’s partly because hockey just isn’t as popular as other sports, but there is a bigger (more…)

There are some sports and some leagues that lend themselves to afternoon games. It’s more than common for a football game to be in the afternoon, baseball is at it’s best in the daylight, and basketball is played on many a weekend afternoon. For some reason, though, hockey is not played (more…)

There are few things in the Stanley Cup playoffs that are more exciting than an unexpected upset – when a lower seed finds their game at just the right time and pulls off the miracle series win. While that can be intriguing when it happens it can also create a headache (more…)