Hockey Handicapping Articles

NHL Hockey Odds and Picks: Scouting the Week Ahead
by Alan Matthews - 1/18/2016

Count me among the many who expected the Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks to take a step back this season. Sure, they'd still make the playoffs because that's not all that tough in the NHL, especially in the Western Conference where there are two fewer teams than in the East. But I certainly didn't expect the Hawks to be one of the league's best regular-season teams and a top Stanley Cup contender again after losing the likes of Brandon Saad and Patrick Sharp, among others, off last year's team for salary-cap reasons.

NHL Handicapping: Surprising Success for Florida Panthers
by Trevor Whenham - 1/15/2016

At the halfway point of the NHL season, the Florida Panthers are running away with their division. Mostly, anyway - they have a solid six-point lead over Detroit. It s hard to believe that that is possible, but it's true. The Panthers - eternal whipping boys in the league except for that one year they somehow made the finals and everyone threw rats - are legitimate. Contenders. All but certainly a playoff team. Amazing. Surprising.

NHL Betting Advice: Trends and News Bettors Should be Aware of
by Trevor Whenham - 1/14/2016

When we bet on sports we can get in the habit of focusing on only the short term. We think about the next game - maybe the next week at best. Sometimes, though, an advantage can be gained from stepping back briefly from the day-to-day and considering some bigger issues and the impact they could have on the way that games turn out. Take the NHL, for example. We are about halfway through the season, so we have a pretty good sense of where teams are at and what they are.

NHL Betting Advice: Teams to Watch in Second Half of Season
by Trevor Whenham - 1/7/2016

It's a new year, and in the NHL we are about to enter the second half of the season. It's a good time for bettors to look at what has happened so far and to look at what could happen going forward. Some teams have already shown what they are, and we can expect to see much the same thing from them in the second half.

NHL Hockey Odds and Picks: Scouting the Week Ahead
by Alan Matthews - 1/5/2016

Unless you have lived in south Florida for a couple of decades, you probably only considered the Florida Panthers franchise relevant once in its history: the 1995-96 season when the Panthers reached the Stanley Cup Finals. That team, led by goalie John Vanbiesbrouck and forwards Scott Mellanby and Rob Niedermayer, was swept by the Colorado Avalanche in the Finals, but hockey was a big deal in Miami then (not any longer).

NHL Betting Advice: Hot and Cold Teams for Hockey Wagering
by Chris Vasile - 1/4/2016

We are approaching the halfway point in the NHL season - based on the number of games played. This has been the season of parity. Any team can win or lose on any given night. The Western Conference has Dallas setting the pace to a tune of 60 points in 41 games played. They are eight points up on second-place Los Angeles and 21 points up on eighth-place Anaheim.

NHL Hockey Odds and Picks: Scouting the Week Ahead
by Alan Matthews - 12/29/2015

I don't watch a ton of regular-season hockey. Oh, I follow it closely but I just don't get too excited about watching the games. It really is true that watching the NHL is vastly more different in person than on TV. It might be the best game to watch of the four major U.S. sports in person, especially if you are sitting along the boards. It also helps you can see the puck much better than on your screens.

NHL Hockey Odds and Picks: Scouting the Week Ahead
by Alan Matthews - 12/15/2015

The Columbus Blue Jackets were the first team to fire their head coach this season, but a change hasn't reversed the team's fortunes much as the Jackets are last in the Metropolitan Division. The Pittsburgh Penguins (15-11-3) certainly had higher aspirations this season than Columbus did, and that's why the team fired Coach Mike Johnston over the weekend and replaced him with Mike Sullivan, a head coach of the Boston Bruins from 2003-06.

NHL Betting and Handicapping: Home and Road Differentials
by Trevor Whenham - 12/9/2015

Winning games at home in the NHL isn't that tough - relatively. Even underwhelming teams can do it. The L.A. Kings last year didn't make the playoffs, yet only three teams in the Western Conference won more than the 25 games at home that they did. What killed the Kings, and so many other underachieving or just plain lousy teams, though, is their performance on the road.

NHL Hockey Odds and Picks: Scouting the Week Ahead
by Alan Matthews - 12/7/2015

Dear Bovada, and I'm writing to you because you are based in Canada and are obviously big on hockey odds, how's this for a prop idea: Which streak ends first: Golden State's record 22-game winning streak to open a season or Chicago Blackhawks star Patrick Kane's mark of 22 straight games with a point? Both will be on the line for No. 23 Tuesday night.

NHL Hockey Odds and Picks: Scouting the Week Ahead
by Alan Matthews - 11/30/2015

Suddenly it's a great fall/winter to be a Washington, D.C. sports fan. OK, maybe not of the NBA's disappointing Wizards, but the NFL's Redskins are in first place in the NFC East and the NHL's Capitals are the hottest team in the NHL on a five-game winning streak and atop the Metropolitan Division. And at Bovada, the Capitals have become favorites to win the Stanley Cup at +650, just surpassing Dallas (+700).

NHL Hockey Odds and Picks: Scouting the Week Ahead
by Alan Matthews - 11/24/2015

The Montreal Canadiens were able to withstand the loss of the NHL's best goalie, Carey Price, for nine games while remaining comfortably atop the Atlantic Division. But the Habs' resolve will now be tested again as they have lost arguably their second-best forward, Brendan Gallagher, indefinitely.

NHL Hockey Odds and Picks: Scouting the Week Ahead
by Alan Matthews - 11/17/2015

I can honestly say I didn't expect to type this sentence at all for the 2015-16 NHL season: the Dallas Stars are your Stanley Cup betting favorites. That is the case at Bovada, with the Stars at +700, just ahead of the New York Rangers and Montreal (both +800). Dallas enters Tuesday's game at Buffalo with 28 points (14-4-0, best 18-game start in franchise history), which gives the Stars the lead in the Central Division. Behind Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn, who are No. 2 and No. 3, respectively, in the NHL in points, the Stars are No. 2 in the NHL with 65 goals.

NHL Hockey Odds and Picks: Scouting the Week Ahead
by Alan Matthews - 11/3/2015

Presumably at the start of every month, Bovada will release updated NHL season props, and there are some up on Tuesday. The most interesting in my mind is which coach will be fired next. Columbus was the first team to dump its coach, replacing Todd Richards with John Tortorella a couple of weeks ago. That hasn't much changed the Blue Jackets' fortunes, however.

NHL Hockey Odds and Picks: Scouting the Week Ahead
by Alan Matthews - 10/27/2015

The Habs (9-0-0) started a three-game road trip through Canada on Tuesday night in the late game of the schedule at Vancouver. Montreal is a -120 favorite with a total of 5. A Canadiens win would tie the 1993-94 Toronto Maple Leafs and 2006-07 Buffalo Sabres for the NHL record of 10 straight wins to open a season. Should Montreal beat the Canucks, it can break the record Thursday at Edmonton.

NHL Hockey Odds and Picks: Scouting the Week Ahead
by Alan Matthews - 10/19/2015

There really aren't too many games you circle on the dreadfully long NHL schedule each year, but one of them absolutely arrives Saturday in Chicago as the Blackhawks host the Tampa Bay Lighting for the first time since last season's Stanley Cup Finals. And it wouldn't shock me to see a rematch this June, either. Many people think the young, talented Lightning are where the Blackhawks were in 2010 when they won their first Cup. Saturday's game should have live betting at some books as it's nationally televised by the NHL Network, although obviously opposite college football and the MLB playoffs, so it will be buried somewhat.

NHL Hockey Odds and Picks: Scouting the Week Ahead
by Alan Matthews - 10/12/2015

If you are a casual hockey fan or bettor, you probably had no inclination to pay any attention to the Edmonton Oilers over the past decade or so. The franchise that had the audacity to trade Wayne Gretzky hasn't made the playoffs since losing in the Stanley Cup Finals in 2006. And, frankly, the Oilers might not be that great this season, either, as they have opened the season with just one total goal in losses at St. Louis and Nashville.

NHL Betting Advice: Teams that could Exceed Expectations
by Trevor Whenham - 10/7/2015

We are about to start the long and hopefully very enjoyable NHL season. We have an idea who the contenders are - it seems like there are six or eight strong contenders in each conference as things are deeper and more competitive now than they have been in a long time. At this moment, though, what I am more interested in are the teams that have the potential to outperform the expectations indicated by their futures odds.

2015 Chicago Blackhawks Predictions and Futures Odds with Betting Picks
by Trevor Whenham - 9/28/2015

I've been writing about sports for a long while - well over a decade. I remember when I used to write about sports. Now writing about football is as much about abuse, brain injury and the legal system as Xs and Os. And now, thanks to Patrick Kane, we can't just focus on the stress of being the defending champions or the realities of the salary cap when writing about the Blackhawks We have to keep an eye turned to the legal system in Buffalo and the truly bizarre soap opera which is playing out around rape allegations directed at Kane.

2015 Boston Bruins Predictions and Futures Odds with Betting Picks
by Trevor Whenham - 9/28/2015

Don Sweeney became the GM of this team in April. I can only assume that he got drunk at his celebration party and stayed that way all summer. That's really the only way to explain the summer that the team had. It was an odd one. A sense of desperation had obviously set in after falling short of the playoffs last year after coming into the season with high expectations. That desperation, and a presumed desire to remake this team in his own image and not that of deposed GM Peter Chiarelli, who is now in Edmonton, caused some bold moves.