Hockey Handicapping Articles
NHL Handicapping: Goalies to Keep an Eye On
by Trevor Whenham - 11/11/2013
There isn’t a single player in any major North American team sport who has more of a direct impact on the outcome of a game than a goaltender in the NHL. An amazing effort in net can turn an average or even poor performance from a team into a win. Shaky goaltending, on the other hand, can transform an outstanding team outing into a loss.
NHL Handicapping: Teams Off to Hot Starts
by Trevor Whenham - 11/5/2013
We are nearly 20 percent of the way through the NHL season already. At this point there are 10 of 30 teams that are off to a strong start — at least 20 points tallied in the standings. Some of those teams are off to the start expected, and they are going to stay strong. Others are overachieving, and then there are those that are just too tough to really call right now. How do the 10 squads break down? (odds to win the Stanley Cup are from Bovada):
NHL Handicapping: Colorado Avalanche Fast Start
by Trevor Whenham - 10/15/2013
It’s early in the NHL season, but so far the biggest surprise of all has to be the Colorado Avalanche. Last year they wound up with just 39 points, which was the second fewest in the entire league behind only Florida. The team even won the draft lottery. The disaster of a season led to an offseason overhaul, with Patrick Roy brought in to coach the team and to have a significant say in personnel decisions along with Joe Sakic.
NHL Handicapping: First-Week Disappointments
by Trevor Whenham - 10/8/2013
We are just a week into the NHL season, so we still really have no idea of what is going to happen and who good, or bad, teams are. Through the first week, though, a few things have stood out from a betting perspective as real disappointments — places where I was hoping to find value but now fear I won’t:
Bold NHL Predictions for 2013-14
by Trevor Whenham - 10/3/2013
The offseason is over, and the NHL season is underway. It’s about freaking time. As we get ready for a long winter of excitement, here are six bold predictions about what is going to happen and how the season, and the postseason, will turn out:
NHL Handicapping: Biggest First-Week Games
by Trevor Whenham - 10/1/2013
After a long offseason, the NHL gets rolling again on Tuesday night — thankfully on time this year after the torture of last year’s prolonged delay. While it is dangerous to base too much on what we see early in the year, there are some games in the first week of action that can give us clues about what to expect in the coming weeks.
NHL Handicapping: Hard Teams to Get Read On
by Trevor Whenham - 10/1/2013
Heading into the NHL season, there are some teams that seem to be easy to predict. We know that Pittsburgh and Chicago are likely to be very good, for example, and that Florida and Calgary really, really aren’t. There are other teams, though, that are much harder to understand. They have the potential to be solid contenders, but they also could really disappoint and flounder their way through the season. These five teams are the hardest to put a finger on and get a real sense of what to expect from them through the first month or so of the regular season:
2013 Stanley Cup Picks: Bruins vs. Blackhawks Odds and Predictions
by Alan Matthews - 6/11/2013
If you would have told the NHL and NBC TV officials that they would be given a Boston Bruins-Chicago Blackhawks Stanley Cup Finals back in the winter, they would have taken it in a second. Would the NHL maybe preferred to have had Pittsburgh advance over Boston from the East Finals? Probably, just because of Sidney Crosby.
NHL Handicapping: Penguins Top Contender for Cup
by Trevor Whenham - 5/31/2013
The Pittsburgh Penguins came into the NHL Playoffs as the favorite to win the Stanley Cup, and there is no reason to question that at this point. They are scoring like crazy, getting good play from across the roster, and look angry and determined. I expect them to win the Cup — plain and simple. So, why is that, and what knocks are there against their chances? Let’s take a look:
Kings at Blackhawks Picks and Series Betting Odds
by Alan Matthews - 5/30/2013
NHL and NBC Sports officials must be literally jumping for joy with hockey's Final Four. Pittsburgh, Boston, Chicago and Los Angeles. Those are the past four Stanley Cup Champions, only the second time that has ever happened in the conference finals. You have the No. 2 and No. 3 TV markets. Two Original Six teams. The defending champions trying to become the first club to repeat in 15 years. And, of course, the biggest hockey star on the planet, the Pens' Sidney Crosby. What more could the NHL ask for after alienating its fan base with the lockout?
Stanley Cup Playoffs Power Rankings
by Trevor Whenham - 5/23/2013
And then there were eight. The NHL Playoff field has been cut in half, and it will soon be much smaller still. Before it shrinks, though, it’s a good time to assess the eight teams that remain. These power rankings take three things into consideration — their potential to win it all, their current performance, and their attractiveness as a betting interest:
NHL Handicapping: Capitals a Stanley Cup Contender?
by Trevor Whenham - 4/17/2013
In this short 48-game NHL regular season, it was easy to write off the Capitals after their disastrous start. It seemed obvious that a fast start was essential for a team to be a real contender because it would be too hard to dig out of a hole. At 2-8-1, Washington’s start was anything but fast. They weren’t dead just yet, though. To be a contender they needed to not just improve but completely reinvent themselves in order to make up the gap with so little time to do it.
Hockey Predictions: NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs Props Odds and Picks
by Alan Matthews - 4/11/2013
Probably no major sportsbook emphasizes hockey more than Bovada, which probably isn't surprising considering it's based out of Canada. The site releases NHL special props each week, and this week there are some playoff and division winning odds that I'd like to look at.
NHL Handicapping: Trade Deadline Grades
by Trevor Whenham - 4/4/2013
Losing out on Jarome Iginla hurt — especially because they seemed to have a deal but got rejected by the player. They turned things around nicely, though. Jaromir Jagr has more playoff success behind him than Iginla, and the price was better, too. Adding Wade Redden for essentially nothing was a nice character move as well. They fell further behind Pittsburgh, but they still got better.
Hockey Betting impact of NHL Lockout
by Trevor Whenham - 3/6/2013
The NHL Lockout has created a tough season to handicap. Heading into the season, we had to guess how things were going to turn out — what was going to matter and what was going to give teams an edge. We couldn’t rely on the preseason for evidence, and the circumstances of this lockout made it tough to rely on history. We just had to come up with some theories and hope they were right. Here’s a look at some of the theories that held up along with some that haven’t:
NHL Handicapping: Can Canadiens Keep Up Winning Ways?
by Trevor Whenham - 2/28/2013
The Montreal Canadiens are the biggest positive surprise in the Eastern Conference of the NHL this year. We have gotten so used to them being perfectly average in recent years. They may or may not make the playoffs most years, but they certainly aren’t a real threat to do anything once they get there. This year, though, they have the best record in the conference, and they are playing like an entirely different squad than what we are used to — or what we expected heading into the season given the team they had on paper.
NHL Handicapping: Can Washington Capitals Bounce Back?
by Trevor Whenham - 2/21/2013
Something is rotten with these Washington Capitals. This is a team that came into last season as the Stanley Cup favorite. The core is largely the same as it was back then, but the wheels have fallen off so badly since then that not only are they at the bottom of the East, but it hardly counts as a surprise. This is a classic case study of how quickly things can turn for good teams when they don’t have their chemistry right.
NHL Handicapping: Blackhawks as Top Stanley Cup Contender?
by Trevor Whenham - 2/14/2013
The Chicago Blackhawks have unquestionably gotten off to the best start in the NHL so far. Through 13 games they have yet to suffer a loss in regulation. They sit at 10-0-3, which gives them 23 points — the best in the league, and a massive seven-point lead in the Central Division. Most people expected the Blackhawks to be solid this year, but no one expected them to run away with things. Oddsmakers are buying in, though — the team is now the 13/2 favorite to win the Stanley Cup, solidly ahead of the Penguins at 8/1.
NHL Handicapping: Studs and Duds
by Trevor Whenham - 2/11/2013
It’s hard to believe, but we are already a quarter of the way through this mess of an NHL season. It has been a very difficult season to handicap so far because of the lack of a preseason, the fact that some players were playing while others weren’t, and the condensed schedule. Because it was so tough to figure out what to expect heading into the season, it is particularly important to keep track of how teams are performing for bettors so far. Here are the best and the worst teams in the league so far in terms of delivering wins for bettors:
NHL Handicapping: Teams to Back Right Out of the Gate
by Trevor Whenham - 1/17/2013
The only thing we can know for sure in this abbreviated NHL season is that we don’t know very much. We just can’t. Teams have been out of action for far too long. Many major lineup changes have been made, and several new coaches are in charge. Some players have been playing — in Europe and the AHL — while others haven’t. There is no preseason, and very little practice time before the season starts.
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