Betting NHL May Be the New Norm
I'm from New York City, so I've always been a hockey fan. You'd be surprised to know that I am actually a Red Wings fan, but that's a story for another day. I've spent many an evening running around MSG looking for a better seat as my buddies and I try to avoid the bastard ushers.
As I got older, I started betting on hockey and later found my true passion in sports handicapping. I always did well, and tried to inform as many people as possible that betting on the NHL can be a cash cow, if you know what you're doing that is. This year has been like no other as goal scoring is up all around the league.
NFL Hockey Previews and Predictions
I wrote an article a few days ago on NHL scoring trends. Through a quarter of this NHL season, we have seen more totals of 6 than we have in any full season in recent history. My question is, because NHL Sportsbooks have caught on to the high scoring trend, does value actually lie in the OVER or UNDER?
The National Hockey League wisely took Thursday off, knowing that getting into a viewers match with the NFL would most likely be a losing proposition. However, they curtailed that with a max 15 game schedule on Wednesday and 14 games on Friday. Let's look at the numbers to come out of those 29 games, as we head into another busy eleven game schedule on Saturday.
Most top online sportsbooks had seven games with a total of 6 on Wednesday. Of those seven games, 4 went UNDER, 2 went OVER and one was a push. On Friday, four games closed with a total of 6, where we saw a split of 2-2. However, in two of those games that went OVER, (Toronto - 5 Carolina - 4 & Dallas - 6 Calgary - 4) a total of 19 goals were scored.
So it begs the question, are these totals of 6 primed to go UNDER? In these 11 games with a total of 6, the OVER was 4-6-1. I will definitely be keeping an eye on this as we go forward, and I will report back on which direction this trend is going.
I am going to stay with these two days and dig a little deeper. As stated earlier, 11 of the 29 games closed with a total of 6. The remaining 18 games all closed at 5.5. In the eight games on Wednesday, the OVER was 4-4, while the UNDER had a 6-4 edge on Friday night.
Does this mean we will return more to the norm and our bookies will readjust the totals back away from more 6's? Only time will tell that, but I for one will be watching this and seeing where it goes from here.
Don't think that just because scoring is up that playing the OVER is the way to go. Make sure you keep your head on a swivel, because if not, chances are you will lose out. I am guilty of riding the OVER train, but when I went back into the numbers, I realized that maybe the UNDER is the way to go.