Ice hockey is extremely popular in the Eastern parts of the United States of America. Canada and northern Europe, despite not being as popular as American football, basketball, or baseball.
Our comprehensive NHL odds guide will instruct you on how to wager on ice hockey. No matter which markets you prefer to wager on, our guide on how to bet on NHL odds will increase your betting returns.
Betphoenix.ag makes it simple to place a bet online. Bets can be placed on various NHL hockey betting lines including:
- NHL Puck lines / NHL Moneylines
- NHL Point Spreads
- NHL Over/Under Odds or Totals
- NHL Parlays
- NHL Futures Odds
- NHL Prop Bets.
In addition, we show you how to bet on NHL hockey betting lines in exciting and unique ways like betting on Stanley Cup Odds and other seasonal achievements, for example Rookie of the Year odds, NHL MVP odds, and the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship.
Start by signing up for an account at Betphoenix.ag and taking advantage of the biggest bonuses on the market.
How to Bet on the NHL
Understanding the NHL hockey betting lines is similar to understanding baseball odds because both sports are money-line-based sports. One significant difference between baseball and NHL odds betting is the emphasis on the NHL point spreads. In NHL odds, the number -1.5 is referred to as the "puck line," and if the bet is successful, it results in enticing plus-money payouts.
For instance, the Boston Bruins are listed as a -140 favorite on the money line for a matchup against the New York Rangers. The same Boston Bruins line might be +150 on the -1.5 puck line, but the key difference is a fundamental strategical way of playing hockey.
A team that is losing a game late in the third period will pull their goalie with a minute or two remaining, giving the leading team an easy chance to add another goal.
That suggests that puck line bets hit more frequently than run line bets in baseball because fielders do not leave the field late in games. Something to think about when learning how to understand all of the nuances of hockey NHL odds.
NHL Bet Types
NHL odds are less popular than money line and total bets because the NHL is the least bet-on North American professional sports league in the US betting market as a whole.
Theoretically, NHL Puck lines are an extension of money lines, which are also a popular way to bet. However, most hockey bettors stick to the tried-and-true methods of betting on who will win the game (NHL Moneylines) and how many goals will be scored (NHL Totals) on any given NHL night.
NHL Moneyline
It's exactly what it sounds like: a bet on who the NHL bettor thinks will win the whole game. Prices on the NHL Moneylines are listed in the same NHL odds range as in any other sport. For example, a team listed as a -140 favorite will face an underdog listed as a +120 favorite.
Starting with a simple example of NHL Moneylines for a game between the Boston Bruins and the Vancouver Canucks, the head-to-head odds for this game could look like this:
Boston Bruins -155
Vancouver Canucks +135
Here, you should pay attention to both numbers and the (+) or (-) indication next to them. In this case, a negative minus (-) symbol indicates the probability of a favorite team winning, and a positive plus (+) sign is present for underdog odds. The example has the Bruins as favorites, while the Canucks are the underdog.
The numbers listed after these +/- symbols represent the NHL odds at the base of $100. In the case of the favorites, to win $100 betting on the Bruins, you would need to risk $155, and for the underdog in these NHL Moneylines odds, you would win $135 by risking $100 in your wager. Winning bets receive their original stake back in addition to the winnings.
These NHL odds also reflect the likelihood of the favorite winning or vice versa. The bigger the number, the higher chances that the favorite has to win the match. In some cases, the odds are even, known as a pick'em, when both sides have an equal probability of winning and both teams have odds of +100.
NHL Puck Line
The NHL Puck Lines is a point spread for a hockey game that is almost always written as +/- 1.5 for the game. You have probably heard the expression "betting against the spread" (ATS), but you might not fully understand what it means.
The purpose of the NHL point spreads, called NHL Puck Lines, is to even the odds by conceding points to the favorite, regardless of how poorly teams are matched.
All that means is whether you think the moneyline favorite will win by two goals or more (-1.5) or if you think the underdog will keep it to a one-goal game and lose by a margin of less than two (+1.5) goals. Since losing teams often pull their goalies late in games in search of a greater chance to score, NHL Puck Line bets can be hard to predict, especially if you are backing the underdog at +1.5. The half points are set to guarantee that a bet is not a tie or "push."
Continuing with the previous example, the NHL Puck Line spread would appear as follows:
Boston Bruins -1½ (-125)
Vancouver Canucjs +1½ (+105)
NHL Puck Line guarantees that there is always a favorite and an underdog, even in NHL Moneyline pick 'em games. The Bruins are the favorites in this game, with a point spread of -1½ goals that pay out at -125. On the other hand, the Canucks can lose by less than two goals and payout at +105.
NHL Over/Under Odds
NHL totals betting, also referred to as NHL Over/Under (O/U) betting, is a type of line in which you wager on whether the total of goals in the game, regardless of which team scores them, will exceed or fall short of the oddsmakers' predetermined threshold.
When placing a wager on the NHL Over/Under game total, it makes no difference which team wins or loses. The only thing that matters is the total points both teams score.
The NHL Over/Under odds format would look similar to this example:
Boston Bruins vs. Vancouver Canucks: O/U Total 6.5 goals
If the Boston and Vancouver game end with a score of 4-3 and the NHL Totals is 6.5, those who bet "over" will win, while those who bet "under" will lose.
· Total combined score of 7 or more goals: Over bettors win.
· Total combined score of 6 goals or less: Under bettors win.
For a long time, ice hockey NHL Over/Under odds were always given as a 5.5 number. However, as scoring has gone up across the league in the second half of the 2010s, 6 and 6.5 have become more common numbers for nightly game totals. All that means is whether or not you thought the combined score of the two teams would be higher or lower than the posted total.
NHL Grand Salami
The Grand Salami is a simple way to bet on every game on a given night in hockey, and it's a great way to do so. Simply put, the "salami" is an over-under number posted on the total number of goals scored in all games on a given day. These numbers depend on how many games are being played that day and how many points each team has. On a night when six NHL games all have totals of 6.5, the Grand Salami number would be somewhere around 40 total goals (6.5 points average X 6 games is 39 goals).
NHL Parlays
Ice Hockey NHL Parlays are the same as parlays in any other sport. Bettors combine at least two picks on the money line, total, puck line, or any combination of those and possibly other bets to try to win a bigger payout. If there are two huge favorites listed at -265 or higher on the money line, bettors who are sure those teams will win but don't want to risk almost $265 to win just $100 can parlay the two options together to get a price much closer to even money to lower their risk or dollar value put up.
Again, all of the picks in NHL Parlays have to be winners (or pushes) for the parlay to be considered a winner. Pushes are counted as if the game didn't happen, which is the trade-off for using this type of bet.
NHL Futures Odds
Future bets on the NHL work the same way as future bets on other professional sports at any sportsbook. With NHL Futures Odds, you can bet on things like who will win the whole thing, who will win their division or conference, and the total number of points for the season. Season point total bets are similar to over-under props in other sports, but because hockey's point system is a little different, a point-based system is just a better way to do things on the ice.
In Future, bets on the NHL Stanley Cup odds are the ones that are posted and talked about the most in the months leading up to a new season.
But in hockey, many upsets happen during the playoffs every year, and random luck plays a bigger role in hockey than in other professional sports, so it might not be a bad idea to stay away from the favorite teams in the futures market.
It's not that the favorites never win, but the President's Trophy has only been given to the league's best team (the team with the most points at the end of the regular season) eight times in 33 years and only twice from 2002-03 to 2018-19. This means that in the futures market, going a bit down the NHL odds board can pay off.
NHL Prop Bets
In hockey, NHL Prop Bets bets can be made on a wide range of things, from how a team will do in a game or season to how a player will do statistically in a game. For example, every game will have individual prop bets for the best players on each team, such as goals scored, assists given, points scored, and so on. You can also bet on combinations of stats like these.
Fantasy players who depend on these individual stats for their teams every day or week will probably be drawn to these plays, but they can be hard to win in the long run because hockey is a very random game.
What is the NHL?
The National Hockey League of North America (NHL) is the most well-known ice hockey league in the world. 32 teams make up the NHL, which is split between North America and Canada and is considered one of the four top professional sports leagues in the US.
Eastern Conference
Atlantic Division
- Boston Bruins
- Buffalo Sabres
- Detroit Red Wings
- Florida Panthers
- Montreal Canadiens
- Ottawa Senators
- Tampa Bay Lightning
- Toronto Maple Leafs
Metropolitan Division
- Carolina Hurricanes
- Columbus Blue Jackets
- New Jersey Devils
- New York Islanders
- New York Rangers
- Philadelphia Flyers
- Pittsburgh Penguins
- Washington Capitals
Western Conference
Central Division
- Arizona Coyotes
- Chicago Blackhawks
- Colorado Avalanche
- Dallas Stars
- Minnesota Wild
- Nashville Predators
- St. Louis Blues
- Winnipeg Jets
Pacific Division
- Anaheim Ducks
- Calgary Flames
- Edmonton Oilers
- Los Angeles Kings
- San Jose Sharks
- Seattle Kraken
- Vancouver Canucks
- Vegas Golden Knights
Throughout the regular season, each team plays 82 games—41 at home and 41 away. Similar to basketball, the sheer number of games gives us a ton of opportunities every day to find value bets. The sheer volume of games also frequently results in bookmakers' NHL odds not being as accurate as they might otherwise be, giving savvy bettors a competitive edge throughout the lengthy NHL season.
There are few sports that are faster, more physically demanding, or more exciting than ice hockey, which is dubbed "The Fastest Game on Earth."
Few sports on earth can match the combination of speed, power, skill, and sheer potential for violence that a high-level ice hockey game between two fierce rivals brings to the table!
Unsurprisingly, ice hockey has thrived in places like Canada, the United States, Northern Europe, and Eastern Europe. Ice hockey is especially well-liked among sports bettors in these regions. Ice hockey is most well-established as a sport and a spectacle where winters are more severe.
Whatever your personal location, ice hockey offers very similar betting markets, with a few bets made in the US thrown in and the same league and cup formats at the club level and in international competitions as a sport like soccer does.
