Hockey is the most popular sport in Canada and the National Hockey League (NHL) is the most watched North American league by the Canadians. The seven Canadian NHL teams represent by far the highest percentage of Canadian content among these top professional leagues, and rightfully so considering hockey is a sport that is ingrained in the culture of Canadians. This need to follow the NHL in the Canadian society, translates to a great deal of NHL bets being placed in the country.
With this popularity, you can understand why the NHL is a favorite amongst sports bettors. The action is fast-paced, and if you know what you’re doing, you can stand to make a lot of money.
There are many ways in which you can bet on the NHL with a long list of markets available on every game of the season. The main three markets on the NHL and the most popular markets are Money Line, Puck Line and Goal Totals.
Money Line is the simplest form of NHL betting whereby you’re picking which team you think will win. With no option of a game ending in a tie (overtime and shootouts played) in the NHL, there are simply two different outcomes in an NHL Money Line market: Team A to win or Team B to win. That also means your bet will either win, or lose, with no pushes or ties possible.
Puck Line or NHL against the spread, is taking a team at -1.5 or + 1.5 goals, where the odds change rather than the spread like in the NFL or NBA. Here you are betting on either the favourite to win by 2 or more goals, or for the underdog to win, or to lose by 1 goal. The Puck lines can change from game to game, with some being +/- 0.5 goals and other +/- 2.5 goals, depending on how favoured one team is over the other. The puck line will always have a .5 on the end to avoid a tie or a push. One side will always cover and the other will lose.
Goal Totals is an over/under market on how many combined goals will be scored in the match. The line will be set by the sportsbooks and will typically range anywhere from Over/Under 4.5 goals right up to over under 8.5 goals. Of course there are cases where the line can fall out of these parameters, as each game and the expected number of goals will be different. If you bet the overs on a 5.5 goal line, you need there to be 6 total goals scored to win, if you bet the unders on the same line, 5 or fewer goals in the match will see you cash your ticket. The NHL Over/Unders market is a great way to bet on a game if you don’t like either side of the spread or money line, or you see a high/low scoring game on the cards.
NHL Prop Bets can either refer to a player or to a team. NHL Player Prop Bets are a type of bet in which you are betting on the proposition of an occurrence, or non occurrence of a specific player based stat or performance.You can bet on either of these in the NHL, as well as things like assists, shots, or even saves from a goaltender. With NHL team prop bets you are betting on one team or another, rather than the performance of both teams. Examples could be the Team To Score First, First Team To 20 Points, or a team to Win The First Quarter.
NHL Live Betting is a bet on a game once it has started. With odds and lines updating in real time whilst the action unfolds on the ice, you can bet on the game right up until the dying seconds. While you won’t see as extensive a range of markets as you would pregame, all of the top markets such as money line, spreads, totals and a selection of prop bets will be available.
NHL Futures Betting, as the name would suggest is a bet on a future NHL outcome such as the Stanley Cup Championship, To Win A Division, To Win A Conference, or select NHL Player Futures such as the Hart Memorial Trophy winner awarded to the MVP of the league. You can usually bet on these markets well ahead of time, from before the season begins, right through until the end of the season, or the end of the regular season for specific markets.
Make sure to check the markets offered by some of the sportsbooks we link on this website and decide what is most appropriate for you.