Hockey Handicapping Articles

NHL Odds and Picks: Scouting the Week Ahead, Part II
by Alan Matthews - 4/14/2015

I looked at the four Stanley Cup quarterfinal games starting Wednesday in my Monday preview here at Doc's, and while those are some quality matchups, I really like the Thursday four-game slate of openers better because I think all four series underdogs have a very reasonable shot at winning the series -- compared to only thinking one does among Wednesday's games (Islanders). Bovada did add two interesting props since I wrote Monday.

NHL Odds and Picks: Scouting the Week Ahead, Part I
by Alan Matthews - 4/13/2015

Now that we got that pesky regular season out of the way, hockey season really begins this week with arguably the greatest playoffs in American (and Canadian) sports and certainly for the best trophy there is: the Stanley Cup. I am going to break down my previews into two parts. Today I look at the four series that start Wednesday, and on Tuesday I will preview the four that begin Thursday. The New York Rangers, who won the Presidents' Trophy, open the playoffs as 5/1 Stanley Cup favorites at Bovada followed by Chicago and St. Louis at 8/1.

NHL Playoffs Betting Advice: Differences in Wagering from Regular Season
by Trevor Whenham - 4/12/2015

For hockey fans and hockey bettors, there is nothing better than the Stanley Cup playoffs. Sure, the regular season is great and all. When the playoffs start, though, intensity amplifies, play gets much more disciplined and fast, and the best emerge. It is like hockey on steroids — a better, stronger version of the sport.

Stanley Cup Futures Odds: Overrated Teams Heading into the Playoffs
by Trevor Whenham - 4/12/2015

The best two months on ice are about to get started as the brutally-tough road to the Stanley Cup gets underway on Wednesday. Now that the fields are set and all we can do is wait, it’s a good time to look at futures odds to see which teams are — in the eyes of oddsmakers and the betting public — getting more credit than they deserve.

NHL Playoffs Futures Betting: Live Stanley Cup Underdogs
by Trevor Whenham - 4/12/2015

It took right up until the second to last game of the season, but the playoff pairings are all set, and we now can look closely at which NHL teams have a better shot at winning their conference and making the Stanley Cup finals than their odds suggest. The NHL playoffs are absolutely brutal — the toughest postseason challenge in North American sports.

Tracking the Calgary Flames: Season-Long NHL Picks and Handicapping for Hockey
by Trevor Whenham - 4/9/2015

The playoffs don’t technically start until next week. For these two teams, though, and for others like them fighting for their playoff lives, the playoffs have been on for weeks already. In that sense, this is like a Game 7.

NHL Hockey Odds and Picks: Scouting the Week Ahead
by Alan Matthews - 4/6/2015

The Presidents' Trophy has been awarded since the 1985-86 season, and only eight of its winners have gone onto take the Stanley Cup. The last was Chicago in 2012-13. Four of the past nine winners have been eliminated in the first round: the 2011-12 Canucks, the 2009-10 Capitals, the 2008-09 Sharks and the 2005-06 Red Wings. Last year's winner was Boston and it was eliminated in the Eastern semifinals by Montreal.

NHL Handicapping: Most Important Games Before the Playoffs
by Trevor Whenham - 4/6/2015

We are heading into the final week of the NHL season. By next Saturday it will all be over and the playoffs will be about to begin. Between now and then, though, there are a lot of games left to play — and many of them have the chance to be fantastic. Looking ahead, here are six of the biggest games of the next week — games that have the chance to rock the realities of the teams involved. These will be fun games to watch and potentially great games to bet on as well:

Handicapping the NHL Western Conference Playoff Race
by Trevor Whenham - 4/6/2015

Teams in the NHL’s Western Conference have between two and four games left. That’s it. It’s a real surprise, then, just how little we know. Nashville, Chicago, St. Louis and Anaheim will be in the playoffs for sure. Anaheim will win the Pacific Division. That’s all we know for sure. Everything else is uncertain. The Predators, Blues or Blackhawks could win the Central Division. Vancouver, Calgary and Los Angeles could all host a series in the opening round of the playoffs — or miss the postseason entirely.

NHL Hockey Odds and Picks: Scouting the Week Ahead
by Alan Matthews - 3/30/2015

We are in the penultimate week of the NHL's regular season, and I'm surprised it took so long, but finally Chicago has been dethroned as the Stanley Cup betting favorite at Bovada. The Hawks are 15/2, replaced at the top by the New York Rangers at 13/2.

NHL Handicapping: the Surging Ottawa Senators
by Trevor Whenham - 3/26/2015

The Ottawa Senators would be in the playoffs if they started today. That, by itself, isn’t that noteworthy — they have missed the postseason only three times in the last 17 seasons. What makes it amazing in this case, though, is that on Feb. 7 they were under .500 at 20-22-9 and the season seemed to be going nowhere fast. They were 14 points out of the playoffs at that point. Teams 14 points out of the playoffs in February never turn things around, yet here we are. Since then they have gone an incredible 17-2-2 and have, somehow, transformed into the hottest team in the NHL.

Tracking the Calgary Flames: Season-Long NHL Picks and Handicapping for Hockey
by Trevor Whenham - 3/24/2015

It has, for a number of reasons, been a long time since we have checked in on the Flames. Through the absence, though, they just keep chugging along. Their best player, Mark Giordano, is gone for the year with an injury that derailed a Norris Trophy campaign, but they just keep playing well. If the playoffs started today they would be in them, and they are in the midst of a fight to keep that spot that is sure to come right down to the wire.

NHL Hockey Odds and Picks: Scouting the Week Ahead
by Alan Matthews - 3/23/2015

I follow the NHL pretty closely as you might imagine, but I probably couldn't name you more than five Ottawa Senators off the top of my head. It's just such a non-descript franchise. However, the Sens have my attention right now as they are the biggest story in the NHL.

NHL Hockey Odds and Picks: Scouting the Week Ahead
by Alan Matthews - 3/16/2015

Back on Jan. 14, the Minnesota Wild made what looked like a rather inconsequential trade in acquiring goaltender Devan Dubnyk from Arizona for a third-round pick in the 2015 draft. You might not even have noticed that deal at the time. Dubnyk was flat-out lousy last year in Edmonton, going 11-17-2 with a 3.36 goals-against average and .894 save percentage. Dubnyk was just so-so early this season with the Coyotes, going 9-5-2 with a 2.72 GAA and .916 save percentage.

NHL Hockey Odds and Picks: Scouting the Week Ahead
by Alan Matthews - 3/9/2015

I suppose it's easy to say right now, but I always thought the Nashville Predators were a bit overrated. A terrific defensive team, for sure, led by perhaps the NHL's best goalie in Pekka Rinne. A team that could win a round or two in the playoffs, yep. But the league's best? I just didn't see enough offense.

NHL Betting: Handicapping Teams Better Off after Trade Deadline
by Trevor Whenham - 3/3/2015

The NBA trade deadline this year was one of the best in the history of that league — busy, impactful, and thrilling. The NHL usually leads the way with their trade deadline, but this year’s edition was the opposite of the NBA in too many ways. There were quite a few deals, but many teams focused more on filling smaller gaps and adding depth than on making a blockbuster deal. There wasn’t a superstar-caliber player moved. Heck, there wasn’t even a player that the most loyal of hometown fans could argue was close to a star. Sure, there were some nice players, and some guys with real potential, but the foundations of the league certainly weren’t shaken.

NHL Handicapping: Teams Worse Off after Trade Deadline
by Trevor Whenham - 3/3/2015

This was not the most exciting or impactful NHL trade deadline we have ever seen. Far from it. It especially paled in comparison next to the crazy mess that was the NBA deadline a couple of weeks ago. It doesn’t have to be thrilling in order to be useful for bettors, though. Each year there are a few teams that are clearly worse after the deadline than they were heading into it. By being aware of which teams those are you can set yourself up for some nice value now and in the coming weeks. Here are three of those teams:

NHL Hockey Odds and Picks: Scouting the Week Ahead
by Alan Matthews - 3/2/2015

The biggest injury by far this NHL season occurred last Tuesday night in Chicago when Blackhawks star Patrick Kane was checked into the boards by Florida's Alex Petrovic. It clearly was a bad injury with the way Kane skated off the ice, and the Hawks got the bad news on Wednesday as Kane underwent surgery to repair a fracture in his left clavicle. He is expected to miss 12 weeks, which obviously means the rest of the regular season and at least the first two rounds of the playoffs should Chicago advance.

NHL Hockey Odds and Picks: Scouting the Week Ahead
by Alan Matthews - 2/23/2015

Here come the champs! For a while there, it looked like the defending Stanley Cup champion Los Angeles Kings might miss the playoffs. On Feb. 5, the Kings lost 3-2 at Florida, their third straight defeat and 10th in 12 games. They were just 21-18-12 and outside the playoff field.

NHL Handicapping: Inclusion of New Advanced Statistics
by Trevor Whenham - 2/22/2015

Analytics have unquestionably become a bigger and bigger part of sports — and our understanding of them — with each passing year. There is an endless debate over what role they play and what they can actually tell us, but there is no denying their significance in the debate. The NHL, to their credit, has taken some pretty aggressive steps starting this week to lead the debate instead of, like most leagues, pretending it doesn’t exist.