Hockey Betting: What Factors Should You Take Into Account?

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While hockey and the NHL does not get the love from sports betting players that football and the NHL does, it is growing more and more in popularity and as a sports betting player, you should look at all of the possible avenues for you to make a profit.

There are also a number of factors you should consider when you are making your NHL betting picks, and there is no excuse for you going into a pick blindly as all the information you will ever need is at your fingertips on the internet. These tips are just scratching the surface of what you need to look into as an NHL betting sharp.

Record Conversion

The move a few years ago to give points over overtime losses has changed the game a little because it can give you a false representation of what a team is doing. Let's take two teams, one with a record of 42-20-7, and the other with a record of 38-25-4.

If you look at the overtime losses as simply losses, the records become 42-27 and 38-29. Team A does not seem that much better than Team B, so it all depends how much stock you put into overtime losses. Here is a hint: you should not put much. A loss is a loss.

Home/Away Splits

When you are looking at the NHL odds at a sportsbook, you will likely see the home team favored in every matchup and this is not just for hockey; this is the case in many sports as playing on your own ice/field/pitch gives you a certain boost.

Check out a team's record at home and on the road before you make your picks, and if you want to go a little further, you can check out the splits for players to see where they perform best. There are a number of splits you should consider, such as division or conference opponents, but home and away splits should be the very first thing you examine.

Goal Differential

Goal differential will give you a great idea of just how good a team actually is and even though some outcomes might skew a goal differential, for the most part teams will come back to their average. For example, you might see a team with a goal differential of +45, so that should tell you, that is a pretty good team.

A team with a goal differential of -10 might be tough to back, especially against a team from the first example. Let's put it this way: by the end of the 2013-14 regular season, all 16 teams that earned a playoff spot had a positive goal differential.

These are just three of the factors you have to consider when you are putting in your NHL betting picks. There are many more of course, but these will get you started on the hockey wagering road, so use them as a foundation to learn more about making moneyline your puck picks.