Hockey Handicapping Articles

NHL Hockey Odds and Picks: Scouting the Week Ahead
by Alan Matthews - 12/15/2014

I mentioned last week when Ottawa fired head coach Paul MacLean that on any short list of the next coach to go had to be Edmonton's Dallas Eakins. I just didn't expect that to come true so quickly. Eakins was fired Monday, with general manager Craig MacTavish to serve as the interim coach until handing over the job to Todd Nelson, who will be promoted from Edmonton's AHL affiliate in Oklahoma City and learn under MacTavish's wing for a while.

NHL Handicapping: Edmonton Oilers Coaching Situation
by Trevor Whenham - 12/15/2014

I live a short three-hour drive from Edmonton. Growing up, there was nothing I likeed more than hating the Oilers. They were bitter rivals and worthy enemies. When my hometown Calgary Flames beat them — and that didn’t happen much in those days — the city partied. The Flames have gone through some rough years in the last few seasons.

NHL Betting: Handicapping Home and Road Discrepancies
by Trevor Whenham - 12/11/2014

When it comes to evaluating NHL teams over the longer term, one of the simplest but most powerful ways to do it is by looking for significant differences between their records at home and on the road. Playing on the road is very tough — rinks have different characteristics, trips can be long, and crowds can have clear impacts on officiating. If a team is as good on the road as at home then they are reasonably easy to respect — unless they are lousy in both places, of course.

Tracking the Calgary Flames: Season-Long NHL Picks and Handicapping for Hockey
by Trevor Whenham - 12/9/2014

It’s a good old Canadian contest on Tuesday night in Toronto. These cities don’t like each other very much — Calgarians think Torontonians are stuck-up and convinced that they are the center of the universe, and Torontonians think Calgary is full of rednecks and hicks. This one has a personal angle to it. The teams don’t play each other often since they are in different conferences, and they have been reasonably frequent trade partners — including when the Flames gave Doug Gilmour to the Leafs for essentially nothing in one of the worst trades in league history — so there are plenty of reasons for this one to matter more than a typical Tuesday night nonconference affair might.

NHL Hockey Odds and Picks: Scouting the Week Ahead
by Alan Matthews - 12/8/2014

If you wagered before the season at Bovada on the first NHL coach to be fired and you chose Ottawa's Paul MacLean, congratulations because I didn't expect MacLean to be the first one to go. After all, the guy won the Jack Adams Award as the NHL's Coach of the Year only two seasons ago.

Tracking the Calgary Flames: Season-Long NHL Picks and Handicapping for Hockey
by Trevor Whenham - 12/4/2014

This game is, in so many ways, like a team playing themselves in the mirror. The Colorado Avalanche at this point last year had much in common with Calgary this year. They were a very young team that was playing to the absolute maximum of their capabilities because of outstanding play from young players, very strong coaching, good goaltending, and benefiting from every possible bounce going their way. They were atop their division for a long time, and they rode their momentum all the way into the playoffs. Sounds a lot like the path Calgary is on now.

NHL Handicapping: Sorting Out the Logjam at the Top of the Standings
by Trevor Whenham - 12/3/2014

Things atop the NHL standings are ridiculously congested right now. The Tampa Bay Lightning are at the top with 37 points, but three are right behind with 36, and there are nine teams within three points of the NHL lead. So, 30 percent of the league could find themselves atop the NHL standings following a successful back-to-back. It’s a big shift from last year. On Dec. 1, 2013, the Blackhawks had 44 points — three more than second-place San Jose and five more than the Blues, who were alone in third.

Tracking the Calgary Flames: Season-Long NHL Picks and Handicapping for Hockey
by Trevor Whenham - 12/2/2014

This pick is all about a long love affair I have had with a particular kind of bet. There is no bet in all of sports — at least outside of horse racing exotics — that I enjoy winning more than the puckline in hockey. In this defensive era in the NHL, we have to be very choosy about when to make the bet. However, when the time is right it’s a chance to receive a very solid payout on a favorite that may otherwise be unattractive.

NHL Hockey Odds and Picks: Scouting the Week Ahead
by Alan Matthews - 12/1/2014

After the NHL emerged from the lost 2004-05 season due to the lockout, the league changed some rules aimed at helping to boost offense. Because, let's face it, American sports fans like scoring, not 1-0 NHL games (or soccer matches). It seemed to work for a while. In 2005-06, there were seven players who totaled at least 100 points.

Tracking the Calgary Flames: Season-Long NHL Picks and Handicapping for Hockey
by Trevor Whenham - 11/25/2014

These Flames just don’t make any sense at all. We just have to accept that and come to terms with it. The latest proof came on Saturday night. I was flipping between their home game against New Jersey and UCLA’s beatdown of cross-town rival USC. With a few minutes left in the Flames game, I gave up on it — Calgary was down 4-2 and not playing great — and settled on the football game for good.

NHL Hockey Odds and Picks: Scouting the Week Ahead
by Alan Matthews - 11/24/2014

Penguins star Sidney Crosby is probably your Hart Trophy favorite with 26 points entering the week, but my pick back in October, Dallas' Tyler Seguin, is right there. He also has 26 points but leads the NHL in goals with 15, one ahead of preseason favorite Steven Stamkos of Tampa Bay. Seguin probably won 't get the Hart consideration he deserves because the Stars have been a big disappointment with just 20 points. Those are the third-fewest in the Western Conference.

NHL Betting Studs and Duds
by Trevor Whenham - 11/24/2014

It seems like the hockey season only just began, yet we already find ourselves about a quarter of the way through the season. We certainly can’t complain that it has been boring or predictable. We’ve seen shocking success and perplexing failure. In the West, we have three playoff teams last year that wouldn’t make the playoffs if they started today — and all three looked to be improved heading into this season.

Tracking the Calgary Flames: Season-Long NHL Picks and Handicapping for Hockey
by Trevor Whenham - 11/19/2014

If you had suggested before the season that when these teams met towards the end of November that one team would have just five points more than the other, I would have considered you an optimist. If you had said that it would have been the Flames with the lead, I would have checked you into a mental facility.

Tracking the Calgary Flames: Season-Long NHL Picks and Handicapping for Hockey
by Trevor Whenham - 11/18/2014

Since we last checked in on the Flames, they have beaten both Arizona and Ottawa at home, and neither win has been particularly tough for them. Now, though, they are taking a step up in class. A big one. The fact of the matter is that, as impressive as the 11-6-2 start is for this team, there is something more than a little false about it all.

Tracking the Calgary Flames: Season-Long NHL Picks and Handicapping for Hockey
by Trevor Whenham - 11/12/2014

This is a very pivotal game for the Flames — a potential turning point for what has been an almost impossibly strong season to date. Calgary has been playing way beyond expectations for the last month, but on Monday night they suffered their first truly bad loss since their third game of the season.

NHL Hockey Odds and Picks: Scouting the Week Ahead
by Alan Matthews - 11/10/2014

Tuesday marks the one-year anniversary of a day that Steven Stamkos and Tampa Bay Lightning fans would like to forget. The most electrifying player in the NHL -- and he is, more than Sidney Crosby -- broke his leg in a game against Boston, costing Stamkos the chance to play in the Olympics for Team Canada. Stamkos still isn't arguably all the way back with his explosiveness, at least on an every-night basis.

Tracking the Calgary Flames: Season-Long NHL Picks and Handicapping for Hockey
by Trevor Whenham - 11/10/2014

I have had tonight’s Calgary Flames at Carolina Hurricanes game circled since Oct. 23. On that night I watched these two teams play in person in Calgary. It was a truly horrible game. The Flames won 5-0, and the game wasn’t nearly as close as the score indicated. Carolina was terrible, and Calgary matched up very well with them. (Incidentally, by far the highlight of the night came after the game when we watched Alex Ovechkin, Nick Backstrom and several other Capitals who were in town awaiting their game two days later play some reasonably high stakes blackjack at the casino near the arena while dozens of fanboys tried to watch without looking like they were staring.)

Tracking the Calgary Flames: Season-Long NHL Picks and Handicapping for Hockey
by Trevor Whenham - 11/5/2014

This has been a very strange NHL season so far — at least when it comes to the Calgary Flames. On paper they have all sorts of issues. Their roster contains very few stars — Mark Giordano, Jonas Hiller, T.J. Brodie. For the most part it is made up of two types of players — questionable veterans who are most valuable because their over-inflated contracts allow the team to reach the salary cap floor and young players who have potential but not the experience to realize it. Somehow, though, it’s all working. Really working.

NHL Hockey Odds and Picks: Scouting the Week Ahead
by Alan Matthews - 11/3/2014

Playing at home has an actual schematic advantage in the NHL because the home team gets to make the final line change (after a stoppage of play), and thus the head coach can get the best matchups possible on the ice. Still, it shouldn't make that much of a difference, and that's what I can't figure out about the reigning Stanley Cup champion Los Angeles Kings.

NHL Hockey Odds and Picks: Scouting the Week Ahead
by Alan Matthews - 10/27/2014

Could the Carolina Hurricanes be on pace to be one of the worst teams in NHL history? I'm not really ready to say that yet, but the Canes certainly appear like the worst in the league this season. They are the only team without a victory and have just two points through seven games. Every other team has at least seven entering Monday. Carolina is 27th in goals per game at 2.0 and 29th in goals against at 3.9.