NHL Lines, Odds, and Betting Trends

How to Use the Odds Comparison Tool

Compare NHL odds across legal US sportsbooks at ScoreandOdds.com to help you profit over the course of the NHL season and into the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Find out how to use the odds comparison tool, along with other NHL betting tips below.

Are you in a state or traveling to a state with legal sports betting, such as New Jersey or Pennsylvania? Whether betting on hockey, basketball or baseball, our odds comparison tools can be used on desktop or mobile, helping you, the sports bettor, find an edge.

We know how tedious line-shopping (finding the best lines) can be, so our odds comparisons tools do the work for you. The NHL odds comparison tool highlights the best NHL moneylines, point totals and puck lines from premier legal US sportsbooks.

Simply click on the kind of hockey bets you want to see — moneylines, puck lines or Over/Unders — where it says Bet Type. The best NHL odds will be outlined in red, showing you the best sportsbook to use anytime you want to bet on a hockey game.

Here’s the icing on the cake: Every sportsbook featured in our NHL odds comparison tool will have a welcome promotion, which includes free bets and/or deposit bonuses for all new users. Take advantage of all of the offers by clicking on the bet you want and register today!

Of course, if you are new to NHL betting, or sports betting in general, you first want to understand exactly what you are looking at in terms of NHL moneylines, Over/Unders and puck lines.

NHL Betting Glossary & Tips

NHL Moneyline – Betting on the moneyline is the most popular way to bet on NHL games. You’ll need to know how to read lines before you do anything. By betting on the moneyline, you’re simply betting on who you think will win the game, or at least on the team that you think has the most value. Keep in mind, when you bet on the favorite you will have to risk more (sometimes substantially more) than the bet pays out. If you bet on the underdog, the payout will be more than you risk. Ex: Pittsburgh Penguins -200 vs. New Jersey Devils +180. To win $10 on the Penguins -200 you have to risk $20; if you bet $10 on the Devils, you will profit $18 if the Devils pull off the upset.

NHL Betting Tip: When we talk about value, we’re talking about the team that is the best bet, not necessarily who is most likely to win on a given day. In NHL especially, there will be value on large underdogs, because the public often flocks to favorites. For example, look at the moneylines on this game during the 2019 regular season: Los Angeles Kings +235 vs. Boston Bruins -270. The Bruins were clearly the better team, and if the moneyline was closer to even money odds (-/+100) then the Bruins would be a great value bet. In this case, however, to justify betting on the Kings, whose +235 moneyline equals an implied probability of 29.85%, you need not think they will necessarily win the game more than 50% of the time. You just need to believe the Devils would win three out of every 10 games (30%) in this particular matchup.

NHL Over/Under (total)- An Over/Under bet in the NHL is a bet on the total number of goals scored between two teams. The typical designated Over/Under number is 5.5, but can fluctuate depending on the matchup. If you bet Under 5.5, you want the combined score of both teams to be less than 6 (ex: 3-2).

NHL Betting Tip: We talk about key numbers in NFL lines and college football betting. There are also two key numbers when it comes to NHL goal totals: 5 & 5.5. The most common number of goals scored in an NHL game is 5, which is why this is a key number. Sometimes one sportsbook will have the Over/Under set at 5.5 while another sportsbook might have 5. Use the NHL odds comparison tool to find out which sportsbook is best for your NHL pick — it could be the difference in a loss, win or push.

NHL Puck Line – The puck line is the closest thing to a spread in NHL betting. When looking at the puck line, the favorite will be -1.5 goals and the underdog will be +1.5 goals. Unlike NHL moneylines, the favorite has to win by two or more goals to cover a puck line, while any other outcome results in a cover for the underdog.

NHL Betting Tip: The puck line gives hockey bettors more options, specifically if they think a favorite is likely to dominate a game. You can increase your payout by taking a favorite on the puck line rather than the moneyline. Favorites often win by two or more goals because NHL teams will pull their goalies when they’re down by one goal in the final minutes of a game, leaving an open net for the other team.

Vigorish (vig) or Juice – By charging sports bettors a small fee when they place their bets, the vig or juice is how sportsbooks earn revenue.

NHL Betting Tip: In most sports, you’ll find the juice (-110) to the side of each spread. The juice isn’t as apparent when it comes to NHL bets, but it is factored into the moneyline, puck lines and Over/under. Just like the Over/Under, you want to use our NHL odds comparison tool to cut down on the juice you’re paying to legal US sportsbooks. This will help make you a prosperous NHL bettor over the long run.

More NHL Betting Terms

NHL Parlay – Parlays involve two or more NHL betting picks, all of which must win for your NHL parlay to payout. The larger payouts in parlay bets are typically what attracts bettors. In traditional lines (-110), two-team parlays usually pay 2.6-to-1, three-team parlays pay 6-to-1, four-team parlays pay 10-to-1, etc. However, since NHL moneylines vary drastically, NHL parlay payout will look a bit different. Though we refer to these as “two-team parlays,” parlays can consist of picks on NHL puck lines, moneylines or Over/Unders. Use our parlay calculator for your convenience.

NHL Betting Tip: Find out how much NHL parlays payout by using Scores and Odds’ parlay calculator.

Live NHL Betting (in-game) – Live betting, or in-game wagering, occurs after a game starts. Sportsbooks update moneylines, puck lines and the Over/Under in real-time, dependent on how the game is going.

NHL Betting Tip: If an underdog scores first, you can get more value on the favorite playing from behind than you would have before the puck dropped.