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NHL Betting Guide For The Novice Bettor

NHL Betting Guide For The Novice Bettor

NHL Hockey isn’t a very popular sport to bet on for reasons we can’t quite understand. When it comes down to it NHL hockey mat be easier to bet on than most other sports. Being mainly a money line sport the NHL can be easier to win than it’s fellow winter sport basketball. The difference in talent from the have’s and the have not’s might be wider than other sports.

 

Money Line

The money line is the most popular way people bet on hockey. In this hypothetical game between the NY Rangers and Pittsburgh Penguins the Rangers are the favorites and listed -140 and the Penguins are the underdogs listed at +130. All that means is you would have to risk $140 to win $100 on the Rangers and you only have to bet $100 to win $130 on the Penguins. Betting on hockey scares a lot of fans away because of frequent high odds. It’s not rare for one of the better teams in the league to have odds of -200 or more when facing one of the bottom feeders. That risk is too high for most people.

 

Total

Betting on the NHL total (also known as Over/Under) is betting on the total number of goals scored by both teams. NHL totals are usually either 5 or 5.5 goals. It’s very very rare to see a total of 6 goals but it has happened. If the total is 5.5 goals that means you can either bet the “Over” which means the two teams have to score 6 goals or more to win. A bet on the “Under” means the two teams have to combine for 5 goals or less to win. If the total is 5 and the game ends 5-0, 4-1 or 3-2 the game is a push and all totals bets are refunded.

 

Point Spread

The Point Spread (also known as the puck line) in hockey is a little different than in football or basketball. In hockey the puck line is always set at 1.5. The team that has the minus sign in front of the 1.5 is the favorite. The team the plus sign in front of the 1.5 is the underdog. In this hypothetical game we are using the Detroit Red Wings as the favorite and the Boston Bruins as the underdog. The line will look like this, Detroit Red Wings -1.5 (+145) Boston Bruins +1.5 (-155) This means you only have to bet $100 to win $145 on the Red Wings winning by 2 goals or more. You have to bet $155 to win $100 on the Bruins to win or lose game by 1.

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