The month of October kicks off betting action for a new season of games in the NHL. Hockey may not be nearly as big as football betting this time of the year, but savvy bettors understand that it is all about winning money when it comes to betting on the games, no matter what sport you are wagering on.
Betting early season NHL games at online bookies can offer quite a bit of value if you know where and how to look. The following are three basic tips for betting NHL games early in the season that can improve your overall winning percentage.
–The Wait and See Approach
Too many sports bettors put the NHL on the backburner to focus all of their handicapping efforts on college football and the NFL. By the time these bettors decide to get on board, the Oddsmakers have already had enough time to sharpen their lines. At the other end of the spectrum are the diehard NHL bettors that are looking to bang the books on opening day. The smartest strategy lies somewhere in between.
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Coaching changes, player personnel movement and the long layoff all play a factor in the opening round of regular season NHL games. Most betting advice is geared towards last season’s results and projected results for this season. The biggest betting story from last season was the way the expansion Vegas Golden Knights played right out of the gate. Nobody saw that run all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals coming.
When you play an 82-game regular season, the wins and losses are going to add up quick. Taking the first one or two weeks of the new season to watch and track the results without the risking any money on an actual bet, will provide a solid foundation of stats, facts and betting trends to quickly get you up to speed.
–Carefully Track the Early Results
Even the top NHL handicappers in the country cannot agree on the idea of early games favoring defense and goalies or offense and the sharpshooters. The reason they cannot agree is the simple fact that there is no right or wrong answer. These are the types of things that need to play themselves out in the early part of the season. Tracking a team’s primary goaltender from his first start of the season will immediately point to which goalies are already in mid-season form and which ones could have used a few more exhibition games to work out the kinks.
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A hot goalie early in the season can not only win games for their teams, they can add value to the UNDER bet on the total line.
The same can be said for the sharpshooters in the league. Teams scoring goals early and often points to a coaching scheme that has the right players on the right lines. Even the highest scoring teams in the league go through dry spells, but you are looking for the teams that have gotten hot lighting the lamp right out of the gate.
A hot line that is producing multiple points in a singe game can often times lead to early wins as well as a winning bet on the OVER on the total line.
–Become a Subject Matter Expert
There are 31 teams in the NHL playing in four separate divisions. The ultimate NHL betting junkie is going to take the time to get a thorough understanding of every team in the league as part of their handicapping process. If you do not fall into that category, then why not take your favorite NHL Division and become a subject matter expert for those eight teams. Familiarity breeds a higher level of predictability, so you would only have the concentrate your efforts on the head-to-head division matchups that fit the bill.
