Keys to Profitable Betting on the 2018 NHL Playoffs

The National Hockey League playoffs are often some of the most befuddling when it comes to finding the best way to make money on sports betting. Just about every year, there is a low seed that ends up crashing the party (such as Nashville in the West last year, rolling from the second wild card in the West to the Stanley Cup Finals). So how can you make money in such chaos? Take a look at some of our NHL playoffs betting tips to help you turn postseason turmoil into cash.

Keys to Profitable Betting on the 2018 NHL Playoffs

It’s go time. #StanleyCup pic.twitter.com/EaHCpFLdRm

— NHL (@NHL) April 9, 2018

The first key has to do with following the moneyline betting. There have been some weeks in the NHL postseason when the moneyline underdogs actually won more games than the favorites. But even when they don’t, following the moneylines in the opening rounds can bring in a lot of money. Let’s take a look back at the 2017 postseason. If you put down $100 on the underdog in each of the first 31 games, you had 18 winners and would have pulled in a hefty profit of $1,038. If you can think of another way to plunk down $3,100 and come away with almost $4,200 total a week later, you need to start your own investment firm. With that said, the underdogs don’t always pay off that handsomely. But the fact is that, with hockey, games can come down to a bounce or two in ways that the other major sports really don’t. Also, the “advantage” of home ice isn’t as significant as home court or home field seems to be in the other sports. Yes, the home team gets to make the last player change after each stoppage, and the home player gets to put his stick down second on the faceoffs, but that doesn’t really seem to translate into much in terms of wins and losses. There are times when the moneylines will go against the logic of the series. Sometimes, the books follow home ice more than they should, and they also follow seasonlong trends more than the dynamics of the series. It’s not uncommon to see an underdog grind out a win — and then do it again in the next game of the series, without the books moving the moneylines to accommodate that reality. So if you pay attention to shifts in the moneyline, they may actually move toward your benefit because so many bettors on the hockey playoffs are in for the postseason but don’t really know the sport all that well. In that sort of situation, you can end up placing more than one bet on the same game, even with the same book, and take advantage of a moneyline that is opening up to give you even more profit. A second key involves staying away from puck lines. You’re going to see a lot of one-goal margins of victory in the postseason. Why? The teams that open up bigger leads often retreat into defensive shells, and the opposition draws closer. It’s a lot easier to conserve a lead than it is to build a big lead and then maintain that wider margin. A third key has to do with short odds on goal totals. A lot of times, in the NHL, you’ll see books sit on the number 5 as the over/under number and give short odds on the “under.” That means that the game has to finish one of these ways: 1-0, 2-0, 3-0, 4-0, 2-1 or 3-1. However, if the score goes to 2-2, you will at best get a push, because playoff hockey never ends in a tie. There are better ways to spend your money than tinkering with goal totals because of the unpredictability of the sport. Finally, forget the regular season. In more ways than what you’ll see in the other major sports, the postseason is a new lease on life. Teams find a new gear in the playoffs (or sometimes they just fall off the table). Ride the rhythm of the postseason and once you feel it, you’ll have a better sense for your wagers.