NHL Betting Strategies

The National Hockey League (NHL) has loyal sports fans all over the world. Like the NBA and NFL, betting on the NHL is fast-paced, exciting, and highly profitable if you know the ins and outs of the sport.

However, hockey players are prone to injuries, and team rankings can shift rapidly. So some sports bettors consider hockey an especially challenging sport to bet on.

New bettors may be intimidated and unsure how to keep track of the sport’s more complex aspects of the game.

What are the NHL betting strategies you should know? What stats should you pay attention to? How can you turn pucklines into huge puck profits?

SportsBetting.com breaks it all down for you. This betting guide gives you valuable betting tips and strategies to find value and make a profit every NHL season.

We discuss the aspects of hockey betting that matter and show you how to turn pucklines into a massive payout.

The choice of traditional moneyline bets or riskier but lucrative prop bets is entirely up to you. Whichever route you choose, make sure to place your bets with a top sportsbook or betting site likeSportsBetting.com.

NHL Betting Strategy

Whether you’re a seasoned pro or new to hockey betting, these strategies will help you make smart bets and raise the amount of money you can earn from your bets.

Track Teams’ Travel Schedules

Hockey is a game where players constantly get bruised, pounded, and beaten up every night. Both teams go through physical punishment every game.

Now imagine how much bigger a toll that takes on an away team who has just traveled a great distance for an NHL game. Long road trips impact speed, focus, power, and overall performance.

If a team is traveling all over the country, it’s a safe bet that their sleep and recovery will be affected. That’s why home ice is typically overvalued in NHL betting.

It helps to take teams’ travel schedules into account, but be careful not to consider them an absolute. Just because a team has been traveling a lot doesn’t mean they’ll suddenly be nonperformers.

A wise way to use travel schedule information instead is to consider it when a line is close and you’re on the fence about your bet.

Don’t Overvalue Statistics

In serious sports betting, statistics are vital. However, it’s essential to not be overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information available online.

The first thing you have to check when working with statistical data is to verify its accuracy. Once you place a bet based on bad stats, you can’t reverse it.

Make sure you get your data from reputable online sportsbooks likeSportsBetting.com.

More importantly, you should know which statistics to prioritize. Sift through all the information and figure out what matters. Ask yourself first if the stat will have a direct impact on the hockey game.

For instance, the number of goals a goalie has allowed on average in a year is more relevant than the team’s losing streak before they got a new set of players.

Analyze Line Matchups

A hockey game is played in lines. A line is a set of players sent onto the ice together at the same time.

Throughout the game, an NHL team’s lines can be changed and matched up against the opposing team’s different lines.

As a hockey sports bettor, you need to understand how the different lines in a team work together since these affect how well the team performs.

Looking for line matchups that will create favorable scoring opportunities is key to success in this hockey betting strategy.

Learn how to analyze line matchups, and you’ll be better able to find potential avenues for higher goal scoring.

Look for Value in a Bet

Looking for value in a bet means finding a bet that gives a bigger return on investment than it should. Of all the strategies here, this one is probably the most important sports betting strategy you need to learn.

Your first step is to check the NHL moneylines or point spreads and implied probability. Every betting line has a corresponding implied probability. Sportsbooks lay out the odds and implied probabilities that they set for an event.

Let’s take a look at how this NHL betting system works. Say that a sportsbook puts out the following betting odds on a playoff game between the Boston Bruins and the Montreal Canadiens.

In this scenario, the Bruins are the favored team, and the Canadiens are the underdog.

These numbers should certainly inform the choices you make. But they’re not enough.

The secret is to place wagers where you believe the implied probability that the odds suggest is lower than the real probability.

The higher the real probability is, the higher its expected value is.

Streak Wisely

Streaking means betting on teams that are on extended winning streaks and betting against those that are on extended losing streaks. This is a tried and true betting strategy in NHL bets, especially for over/under totals bets.

Win streaks tend to happen when teams get valuable injured players back in the game.

To decide which win streaks are sustainable and worth backing, you need to identify lineup adjustments that will improve a team’s performance in the middle of the season.

However, keep in mind that the best teams go through low points during the season, while the worst teams may perform strongly in one game or series of games.

Thus, there’s some value to supporting the bad teams when they’re playing well, and fading the good teams when they’re going through a downturn.

The key is knowing the right time to use this strategy.

Avoid Fading the Public

Fading the public means betting against public opinion. This used to be a popular betting trend back when sportsbooks weren’t online yet and social media was a blip on the horizon.

The idea behind fading is that if you always bet against the public, you can take more advantage of in-game aberrations, bad odds, and bad point spreads by oddsmakers.

However, the public is much more knowledgeable now, thanks to social media, the rise of online gambling, and continuous sports news cycles. Information is much more accessible to everyone, making a public-fading success less likely.

These days, wagering this way might hurt your bankroll more than you think. A smarter way to bet is to use actual strategy and handicapping tactics.

Check Team Performance on Special Teams

A special team is a combination of players tasked to kill penalties and/or scoring on power plays. How well these special teams perform significantly impacts the results of a totals bet.

Power play and penalty kill performance often determine whether a game goes over or under the total. Teams with dominant power plays or porous penalty killing offer you better chances for an over total bet.

Conversely, teams with weak power plays and strong penalty killing increase the chances of a game staying under the total.

Consider Empty Net Goals in a Totals Bet

Empty net goals usually happen towards the end of a game. The coach of a losing team often pulls the goaltender from the net in order to have a 6th attacker during the last 3 or 4 minutes of the game.

Empty net goals affect the result of a totals bet. If you’re placing a totals bet, you should predict how the first two periods will play out.

For example, if you see one team with a big lead by the end of the second period, the losing team will have no motivation to pull their goalie. Thus, an empty net goal late in the game won’t be likely.

There’s a high chance a possible tie late in the game will not lead to an empty net goal, too.

However, it’s good to remember that the game can’t end in a tie. In a case like this, there will always be an overtime or shootout goal.

Puckline Betting for Big Favorites May Bring More Profit

Similar to runlines in baseball betting, NHL puckline bets are spread betting variants. The favored team will always get a puckline spread of -1.5 goals, while the underdog will always get +1.5 goals.

Betting the puckline for big favorites can help you avoid paying the steep price of their moneyline.

When there’s a high value placed on the favorite and little weight on the underdog, a puckline bet could bring you more profit at a reduced price.

Incorporate Analytics Into Your Strategy

NHL hockey analytics have not evolved to the same level as they have in other sports. But there are still some useful indicators worth tracking during the season.

Some metrics that you can incorporate into your strategy for a winning bet include:

• Corsi
• Goals Saved Above Average (GSAA)
• High danger scoring chances

Take Note of Hot Goaltenders

In hockey, goaltenders typically play most of the games during the regular season. They may be replaced occasionally to get some rest, but this rarely happens if they’re playing well.

Keep an eye on the way teams’ goaltenders are performing. If they “get hot” or show dominance, look into their teams’ unders or moneylines.

Avoid Unlikely Prop Bets

Since hockey is such an action-packed sport, prop bets abound. It can be tempting to bet on props, like who will score the first goal or what the final score will be.

However, in hockey, lines often change, and there are almost a hundred different combinations of possible final scores. Thus, prop bets like these are a long shot.

If you really want to get into prop bets, opt for a more reasonable one, like team totals or the number of goals scored by period. These bets won’t be as rewarding, but they do have a greater chance of succeeding.

For more information on hockey betting rules, clickhere.

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