NHL 2019-20 Preview - Back to The ICE

The NHL 2019-20 season will begin on October 2nd when the reigning Stanley Cup winners, the St. Louis Blues take on the Washington Capitals.

From there, each team will play an exciting 82-game season with the NHL Playoffs and Stanley Cup Finals rounding out the NHL 2019-20 season.

The long NHL season will give ice hockey bettors ample opportunities to wager on the sport. With games taking place every night or nearly every night, the action and betting don’t stop. The NHL 2019-20 season drops the puck in just a few short weeks, and today, ZCode System takes a look at what is to come.

NHL 2019-20 Best Betting Odds

The St. Louis Blues came out of nowhere to win the NHL’s Stanley Cup last season defeating the Boston Bruins in seven games. The Blues finished the season third in the Central Division on 99 points. It was their first Stanley Cup victory in franchise history. Now, fans will wonder if the Blues can pull off a second straight cup win.

The Pittsburgh Penguins were the last NHL team to successfully defend their Stanley Cup victory. The Penguins won back to back trophies in 2016 and 2017.

St. Louis is not sportsbooks’ favourite to lift the Stanley Cup. That honor belongs to the Tampa Bay Lightning, who go into a second straight NHL season with high expectations. The Lightning are +750 to win the Stanley Cup while the Vegas Golden Knights are just behind them at +1100.

So, where do the St. Louis Blues fall in terms of Stanley Cup winners futures odds?

Tampa Bay Lightning +750

Vegas Golden Knights +1100

Boston Bruins +1300

Toronto Maple Leafs +1400

Colorado Avalanche +1800

Nashville Predators +1800

St. Louis Blues +1800

Big offseason free agent and trade moves

The New Jersey Devils have been proclaimed as winners in the offseason due to the personnel moves they made. The biggest move the Devils made was the acquisition of defenseman PK Subban. New Jersey gave up Steven Santini, Jeremy Davies, and 2019 and 2020 draft picks to land the defenseman.

New Jersey also signed John Hayden, Adam Helewka, and Nikita Gusev during the offseason. Eight more players arrived in New Jersey as free agents and some pundits have proclaimed the Devils have gone from the bottom of the Eastern Conference to a playoff contender that can go deep into the playoffs.

The Devils are +4000 to win the Stanley Cup, so get on that now if you are a New Jersey fan.

Other big moves include J.T. Miller arriving in Vancouver after the Lightning couldn’t fit him into their plans. Meanwhile, Andre Burakovsky was sent from the Capitals to the Colorado Avalanche. The Avalanche have been labeled as “ambitious” and this move could make them even more likely to make the postseason. Burakovsky is very talented but needs to step up to become an elite NHL picks player to make the trade a success for Colorado.

NHL betting strategies

A good NHL betting strategy can be the difference between making money and losing money. Here are three quick ZCode System betting strategies to live by.

Road schedules and back to back nights

Ice hockey is incredibly demanding and that is why home teams are favored most nights of the week. Not only does an ice hockey team have to spend hours on flights and buses to reach their away games, but the players’ bodies are beaten up. Home teams often have the advantage.

In addition, teams that play on back to back nights are at a serious disadvantage. Research teams playing back to back games and bet against them on the second night.

Don’t confuse fun facts for cold hard stats

One of the biggest issues bettors have is confusing fan facts for meaningful statistics. Often times, we hear fun facts such as the Toronto Maple Leafs haven’t beaten the Montreal Canadiens in the month of January since 2000 when playing on a weekend.

Well, that is a fun fact, but there is obviously more to this. So, you need to either dissect this and see if a trend can be found or seek out more meaningful statistics that can back up why you want to bet on the Canadiens.

Bet over 2.5 goals per game

One strategy that is bound to pay off is betting over 2.5 goals per game. Why? The NHL picks is a high-scoring league and if you look at the goals per game stats of the NHL since 1999, you will see that no season has had fewer than 2.57 goals per game.

That low came in 2003-04. The scoring high came in 2005-06 when the NHL averaged 3.08 goals per game. How many goals were scored in 2018-19? 3.01 goals were scored per game, the second-highest figure since 1999.

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