Hockey Handicapping Articles

NHL Hockey Odds and Picks: Scouting the Week Ahead
by Alan Matthews - 3/28/2016

For the most part, we know which teams are in the Stanley Cup playoffs. In the West, it will be Dallas, St. Louis and Chicago from the Central Division. Los Angeles, Anaheim and San Jose will make it from the Pacific Division. And Nashville and Minnesota from the Central should claim the final two wild-card spots. The Wild got a huge win in that regard on Saturday against Colorado; the Avs are now five points behind the Wild for that final wild-card spot and Minnesota holds the head-to-head tiebreaker.

NHL Hockey Odds and Picks: Scouting the Week Ahead
by Alan Matthews - 3/21/2016

We are witnessing something pretty unusual from an individual perspective in the NHL this season that you may not be aware of. Take a look at the NHL points leaders. You have Ottawa's Erik Karlsson tied for fourth in the league with 73 points while leading with 60 assists. And you have San Jose's Brent Burns 10th in points with 65. He has 26 goals. What's so unusual about that? Both are defensemen.

NHL Hockey Odds and Picks: Scouting the Week Ahead
by Alan Matthews - 3/14/2016

One could make the argument that home-ice advantage is more important in the NHL than in the NFL, NBA or Major League Baseball (they don't have ice, but you get the drift). That's because home NHL teams actually have a schematic advantage in that they get the last line change off a stoppage of play. Thus the coach can manipulate matchups if need be.

NHL Hockey Odds and Picks: Scouting the Week Ahead
by Alan Matthews - 3/7/2016

A lot of people thought last season's Tampa Bay Lightning resembled the 2009-10 Chicago Blackhawks. By that I mean, a young team with a few rising superstars -- Steve Stamkos, Victor Hedman particularly -- ready to be a perennial Stanley Cup contender. Of course, the Bolts lost last year's Finals in six games to those Hawks, but everyone assumed the Lightning would be back.

NHL Handicapping: Teams Most Improved at Trade Deadline
by Trevor Whenham - 3/2/2016

There were a lot of deals dome at the NHL trade deadline and the days leading into this year. The problem, though, is that they weren't really the big deals that people love and were hoping for. A lot of the names that seemed to inevitably be heading elsewhere ended up staying with their teams. On the actual deadline day the problem seemed to be Calgary. The Flames got a very strong price for defenseman Kris Russell from Dallas in the morning, and that seemed to embolden sellers and scare off buyers to the point that the market wasn't there anymore.

NHL Trade Deadline Major Moves and Updated Futures Odds
by Chris Vasile - 3/1/2016

The NHL trade deadline has come and gone, and nobody even batted an eyelash. What was once a very exciting day in the hockey world is now as watered down as three-dollar drinks in any local watering hole. For months, speculation and rumors have run rampant across major hockey markets (all of which are seemingly in Canada) in the hopes of turning plug-and-play roster players into future draft picks and with a high upside.

NHL Hockey Odds and Picks: Scouting the Week Ahead
by Alan Matthews - 2/29/2016

The NHL trade deadline is no different than those in Major League Baseball or the NBA: the rich get richer and the bad teams throw in the towel and accrue assets for the future. Can I tell you with certainty who will win the Stanley Cup after Monday's NHL trade deadline passed? I can't, but I can tell you which teams to bet against the rest of the season.

NHL Hockey Odds and Picks: Scouting the Week Ahead
by Alan Matthews - 2/15/2016

Here's hoping you didn't place a bet on the Montreal Canadiens to win the Stanley Cup early this season when the Habs looked unstoppable for a while and became the betting favorites to hoist the Cup.The season went downhill once star goalie Carey Price, the reigning Hart and Vezina Trophy winner, went down with an injury, and last week came news out of Canada that Price won't return this season.

NHL Handicapping: Betting Against Taking Teams
by Trevor Whenham - 2/9/2016

Last year the Buffalo Sabres made an art form of tanking. They traded away anyone with a pulse. If they had a goalie playing well they shipped him out and replaced him with someone less competent. They hung head coach Ted Nolan out to dry and then fired him after the season. It was a work of art, except for one thing - they still didn't wind up with the top pick thanks to bad lottery luck. Missing out on Connor McDavid stung, but Jack Eichel was a heck of a consolation prize.

NHL Betting Outlook for Four Disappointing Teams
by Trevor Whenham - 2/9/2016

We're past the all-star break in the NHL and closing in on the trade deadline. As teams decide whether they are buying or selling leading up to the deadline, it can be a depressing time for the fans of some teams. Teams that came into the season with high hopes and are struggling by now probably need to accept that it isn't going to happen for them - that this is a lost season. Yet another lost season in many cases.

NHL Hockey Odds and Picks: Scouting the Week Ahead
by Alan Matthews - 2/1/2016

After a very entertaining new format in the All-Star Game, the NHL is back in action on Tuesday night. The Washington Capitals enter the second half of the season with an NHL-best 74 points. They have a 15-point lead over the second-place New York Rangers in the Metropolitan Division and an 11-point lead over Atlantic-leading Florida for the East's top seed in the playoffs. At Bovada, the Caps are +400 favorites to win the Stanley Cup and +175 for the East title. Tampa Bay is next in the East at +550.

NHL All-Star Game Free Picks - Fatal Four-Way Edition
by Chris Vasile - 1/29/2016

The biggest story up until recently was the format change in which four teams will take part in a 3-on-3 tournament and will play a semi-final to see who plays for the championship. Each game will be a 20-minute period in which the winners will play for the right to claim the $1 million grand prize.

NHL Handicapping and Betting: Blackhawks Providing a Boon for Bettors
by Trevor Whenham - 1/19/2016

The Chicago Blackhawks are the defending Stanley Cup champs, and they are serving notice that they have no intention of giving up their crown. They are ridiculously hot right now, having won 11 straight and 14 of their last 16. It's dominant, impressive hockey, and it makes it tough to believe that anyone in the West can match up to them. So, how are they doing it? And what does it mean for bettors? Here are seven factors to consider when pondering those two questions:

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.