Hockey Handicapping Articles

NHL Props and Predictions: Scoring Award Winners
by Alan Matthews - 10/3/2011

With the puck to drop on the new NHL season starting Thursday night, let’s look at the three main awards that go to players who find the net most often. After all, you can’t win if you don’t score (although a good goalie is probably the most valuable commodity on any team). And I will preface this story by saying that if you don’t follow hockey, you may want to start because it’s looking more likely on each passing day that the NBA might not have a season. So the NHL (and college basketball) might have to satisfy your betting jones once football ends.

2011-12 Phoenix Coyotes Predictions with NHL Futures Odds
by T.O. Whenham - 10/3/2011

The Coyotes are the team that no one wants to own. They declared bankruptcy more than two years ago, and the NHL, which has owned the team since the financial mess erupted, can’t seem to find a deal that works out for new ownership. They play in a nice enough building, and the product on the ice has been solid, but they haven’t captured the imagination of the market.

The NHL Storylines That Will Affect Betting This Season
by T.O. Whenham - 9/12/2011

It seems hard to believe because the weather is still so good in traditional hockey markets, but the NHL season is now just around the corner. Training camps are underway for a lot of teams -- though it’s mostly only rookies who are on the ice so far. By early next week teams will be playing NHL Preseason games, and before we know it the regular season starts. As we get ready for the start of another long and hopefully exciting season, let’s take a look at six storylines that will be of interest for bettors throughout the year:

NHL Stanley Cup Futures Odds and Predictions for 2011-12
by Alan Matthews - 6/17/2011

You have to love the sportsbooks. The Bruins are probably still drinking celebratory hooch out of the Stanley Cup, and already the odds for the 2012 Stanley Cup champions are out. And how ironic is it that the one league that shut down for an entire season, the NHL, has the most labor peace going. Thus, unlike the NBA or NFL, you should have a good idea what teams will look like next season.

Stanley Cup Finals Odds: Game 7 Preview
by T.O. Whenham - 6/15/2011

The strangest Stanley Cup finals we have seen in a long, long time is one game away from resolution. It’s not just the fact that the home team has won all six games that has made it interesting. It’s how Vancouver has looked like two entirely different teams. When they have been playing at home they have been tough, defensively minded, and focused. In Boston, though, they have played three games that are quite possibly the three worst games any team has played in the playoffs all year. Add to that the fact that the series has been brutally physical, and that players have taken to diving at every opportunity to try to draw a penalty, and you have a true spectacle. I’m not sure it has been a classic, but it has certainly been entertaining.

NHL Picks: Canucks at Bruins Game 4 Odds and Predictions
by Alan Matthews - 6/8/2011

The Stanley Cup Finals certainly got interesting on Monday night as the Boston Bruins clobbered the Vancouver Canucks, 8-1, in the most lopsided Finals game in 15 years. Now we have a series. But the game featured plenty of chippiness on both sides (as well as some Boston taunting) that seems a lock to carry over to Game 4 and beyond in the wake of the crushing blindside hit that Canucks defenseman Aaron Rome laid on Boston’s Nathan Horton early in Game 3.

NHL Odds: Boston Bruins at Vancouver Canucks Game 2 Predictions
by Alan Matthews - 6/2/2011

Well, so far so good on our Stanley Cup Finals prediction as I recommended taking Vancouver in Game 1. Unfortunately both Roberto Luongo and Tim Thomas were brilliant in net so the ‘over’ 5.5 goals didn’t pan out in the Canucks’ 1-0 victory. If you had scrapper Raffi Torres scoring the game-winning goal (with 18.5 seconds left) in your Stanley Cup pool, then you know more about hockey than I do.

NHL Stanley Cup Predictions: Bruins at Canucks Game 1 Odds and Picks
by Alan Matthews - 6/1/2011

One lengthy drought is going to end in the Stanley Cup Finals between Boston and Vancouver that begins on Wednesday night in British Columbia: Either the Bruins are going to hoist their first Cup since 1972 or the Canucks are going to win their first-ever and bring Lord Stanley’s chalice back to Canada for that country’s first title since the Montreal Canadiens won it in 1993. Either way, it has been quite a year-and-a-half or so for the hockey-mad folks in Vancouver, who got to watch Canada win Olympic gold there in hockey last year thanks in large part to Canucks goalie Roberto Luongo.

NHL Picks: Lightning at Bruins Game 7 Odds and Predictions
by Alan Matthews - 5/26/2011

There’s nothing more exciting, I would argue, than a Game 7 in the NHL playoffs. It’s just that they don’t seem to happen very often in the conference finals. Friday night’s Tampa Bay at Boston Game 7 for the right to face Vancouver in the Stanley Cup Finals is just the fifth conference final Game 7 since 2000 and first since 2006. By the way, the previous four winners of conference final Game 7s went onto win the Cup, including the Bolts in 2004 for the franchise’s only title. The Bruins are seeking their first trip to the Stanley Cup finals in 21 years; they haven’t won one in 39 years.

NHL Handicapping: Hot and Cold Report
by Nicholas Tolomeo - 5/13/2011

Totals in these NHL playoffs have been extremely streaky. Every game in the first round seemed to stay ‘under,’ and then there was a stretch of 10 consecutive games going ‘over’ or pushing. That trend has given way to a run of ‘unders’ where three consecutive games have stayed below the posted total, including San Jose’s Game 7 clincher against Detroit. Expect the ‘under’ trend to continue in the NHL Conference Finals.

NHL Picks: Lightning vs. Bruins Series Odds and Predictions
by T.O. Whenham - 5/13/2011

By the time the Lightning and the Bruins start their series in Boston on Saturday night they may have forgotten how to skate. This has to be one of the longest breaks between series for two teams we have ever seen. Boston beat Philadelphia in four games last Friday, and it was Wednesday when Tampa Bay put the last nail in Washington’s coffin. That means that both teams have had more than a week to get ready for their next opponent — and to lose whatever edge made them so incredibly good in their last series.

NHL Picks: Canucks at Predators Game 4 Odds and Predictions
by Alan Matthews - 5/5/2011

For some ridiculous reason, there is only one NHL or NBA playoff game on Thursday night and I don’t think it has anything to do with Cinco de Mayo. The NBA, frankly, should be ashamed of itself for going dark for a night. With that said, we preview your lone playoff betting option on Thursday, Game 4 of the NHL Western Conference semifinals: Vancouver at Nashville.

NHL Picks: Bruins vs. Flyers Series Odds and Predictions
by Alan Matthews - 4/29/2011

Think the Boston Bruins want to dish out a little payback to the Philadelphia Flyers in their Eastern Conference quarterfinal series that begins Saturday? I’m sure you remember what happened when these two met in the same round of the playoffs last season. The Bruins built a 3-0 series lead before allowing the Flyers to tie the series at three. In Game 7, Boston went up 3-0 in the first period, but Philly still rallied back to win. The B's became just the third NHL team to blow a 3-0 series lead and lose that series.

NHL Picks: Flyers at Sabres Game 7 Odds and Predictions
by David Schwab - 4/26/2011

The back-and-forth first round Eastern Conference playoff best-of-seven series between the Buffalo Sabres and the Philadelphia Flyers will now be decided in a winner-take-all Game 7 on Tuesday night at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. Game time is set for 7 p.m. (EST) and it will be broadcast on VERSUS.

Hockey Picks: Flyers at Sabres Game 4 Odds and Predictions
by Davis Schwab - 4/20/2011

The Philadelphia Flyers were able to recapture home-ice advantage with their 4-2 victory over Buffalo on Monday night as a +107 road underdog. The win gave them a 2-1 edge in this first round best-of-seven Eastern Conference playoff series heading into Game 4 on Wednesday night at the HSBC Center in Buffalo.

NHL Betting Trends: Hot and Cold Report
by Nicholas Tolomeo - 4/13/2011

All of the teams in this week’s NHL Hot and Cold Report are heading to the postseason, but in the NHL where more teams make the playoffs (16) than not (14), still playing hockey at this juncture of the season is by no means a sign that you are a hot team.

NHL Playoff Odds: Canucks Favored to Win Stanley Cup
by Richard Gardner | Bodog Sportsbook Manager - 4/13/2011

The Vancouver Canucks have had a torturous franchise history. Since coming into the NHL in 1970, they’ve been to the Stanley Cup finals twice, in 1982 and 1994, and those have been the two big highlights. Which is rather sad, since they lost on both occasions.

NHL Playoff Predictions
by T.O. Whenham - 4/13/2011

Home ice advantage hasn’t offered much of an advantage lately -- last year the home team won just one more than half of the 15 series. In the East, in particular, I don’t think it’s going to be a big advantage this year, either. There isn’t a top four team that makes me think that they can’t possibly lose the first round, and there isn’t a bottom four seed in the conference that I don’t think could win a series or two.

NHL Picks: Canucks vs. Blackhawks Series Odds and Predictions
by Alan Matthews - 4/13/2011

The Canucks are the team to beat this year. Of course, the Blackhawks are the reigning Stanley Cup champions. And these teams generally don’t seem to like each other. It almost feels like Chicago gets into the head of the Vancouver players, especially stud goalie Roberto Luongo. He has been shaky in losing both six-game postseason series the past two years to the Blackhawks (combined .888 save percentage).

NHL Picks: Flyers vs. Sabres Odds and Series Predictions
by David Schwab - 4/12/2011

Last season the Philadelphia Flyers needed an overtime victory over the New York Rangers in the final regular season game just to make the playoffs. They then proceeded to go on an incredible run that took them all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals where they eventually lost to Chicago in six games. This season the Flyers spent most of the season atop the Eastern Conference, but slipped to the No.2 seed in the playoffs after finishing with a 3-4-3 record down the stretch.