It’s been interesting start to the NHL season. Early favorites are somewhat surprising. Detroit seems to have lost some firepower with the loss of Johan Franzen, and Pavel Datsyuk to injuries. Franzen may be out for quite some time. Of course Detroit has played in the last two Stanley Cups. With the NHL season starting at the beginning of October and sometimes ending in June, that’s a total of 18 months of hockey over 24 total months. That eventually will catch up with a team and most likely accounts for their 3-3-1 record. Pittsburgh once again looks solid, and there seems to be nothing stopping Sid the Kid and his line mates. They are fast out of the gate at 7-1-0. However, there are some rather odd teams that have shown good life in this early season, and they are well positioned as locks in NHL wagering with Quebec’s Mise-O-Jeu and Ontario’s Pro-Line.
When we refer to locks, we are looking at the method of taking the same two teams as your “lock” teams. These two teams will be used on every ticket of Mise-O-Jeu and Pro-Line. However, the third game on every ticket will be a different tie. The logic goes that if the two teams win, then you only need 1 tie out of a possible 10 games to double or triple your money. Rather than placing one large bet on the outcome of 3 games, which can be extremely difficult to determine, you will place a series of smaller bets on 10 games. The minimal bet is $2.00, so for $20.00, you can play 10 games. Determining the outcome of 3 games can be very frustrating, so narrowing it down to only 2 games and then leaving the third as a different tie is one way to putting the odds in you favor. If you want further insight into the proper way to use this method, I expanded on it more in a previous article entitled “NHL Wagering: Increasing Your Odds on Ontario’s Pro-Line and Quebec’s Mise-O-Jeu”. Here is the link to the article if you want to understand the approach better.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2256571/nhl_wagering_increasing_your_odds_on.html?cat=14
Now, let’s get onto the surprising locks for this early NHL season.
Colorado Avalanche:
Colorado is a young team with a hot goalie in Craig Anderon, and with a 6-1-1 record they have stormed out of the gates and are a solid pick either on the road or at home. This is Colorado’s best start since moving to Denver over 14 years ago. For a franchise that won two Stanley Cups, and eight consecutive division championships, that’s quite an accomplishment. They took Detroit into a shootout and won, had road victories in Boston, Toronto, and Montreal, as well as home victories against Vancouver and San Jose. They typically pay $2.15 to $2.40 on the road, and are a $1.90 bet at home. They are a solid lock at this early stage in the season.
Chicago Blackhawks:
This is another team with a strong nucleus of young players who continue to pull games out. They stand atop the Central Division with a 5-2-1 record with a huge come from behind victory against Calgary at home. Down 5-0, they rallied, tied the game, and won in overtime. This is a powerful team with strong offensive forwards. Only issue might be their goaltending. However, they are never out of a game. They pay anywhere from $1.75 at home to $1.95 on the road. This is a solid team for your lock.
Phoenix Coyotes:
Yes, that’s right, the Coyotes are a solid lock team and pay extremely well. They currently sit in second place in the Pacific division with a 5-2-0 record and impressive road victories against Pittsburgh (its only loss to date), and San Jose, as well as a 4-1 drubbing of Boston at home. They currently pay $2.40 on the road against some teams, and $2.60 at home this week against Detroit. Despite all the offseason jockeying back and forth about the team leaving Phoenix and moving to Hamilton, Ontario they have managed to stay focused thanks to head coach Dave Tippett. This is a great team to use as a lock.
New York Rangers and Pittsburgh Penguins:
While neither team pays very well, they are both good locks to use in this early season. Both have strong rosters, and of course with Pittsburgh winning last years Stanley Cup, their hot streak has yet to end. Pittsburgh sits atop the Atlantic Division with a 7-1-0 record and New York is right behind them at 7-2-0.
It looks as if these two teams will be battling it out all year. Pittsburgh pays a low of $1.30 at home against the worst NHL teams and a high of $1.65 on the road. New York seems to be the better team in terms of payout. They are paying $1.65 this week at home against New Jersey, and have paid out as high as $2.00 on the road.
Take the time to do your homework when wagering on the NHL. There are plenty of hot teams to pick as your locks. This season has some surprising upstarts with teams like Chicago, Colorado and Phoenix. All three are playing and paying extremely well. Be sure to take advantage of these teams before the payouts are adjusted. It won’t take long before all three teams start to pay l
