How to Bet on the Stanley Cup Final

The Stanley Cup Final is the culmination of a gruelling National Hockey League season, with two teams battling it out over a best-of-seven series to be crowned NHL champions and win the prestigious Stanley Cup.

For NHL bettors, it’s also the last chance during a season to use their knowledge to try and make a nice profit before the curtain comes down on another campaign.

Road to the Stanley Cup Final

Every season, thirty-one teams from America and Canada battle it out to try and reach the Stanley Cup Final. Those thirty-one teams are split into two conferences, the Eastern and Western, which are then split into two divisions in each conference.

Each team then plays forty-one home matches and forty-one away matches, with the top eight in each conference advancing to the Stanley Cup play-offs. The play-offs are then contested in best-of-seven knock-out matches until only one team is left in each conference.

The winners of each conference then meet in the Stanley Cup Final, a best-of-seven series between the best two teams that season. Whichever team had the best record throughout their regular season will win home team advantage and host the first two matches in the series, with the next two played away from home. The first team to win four matches wins the series and are crowned Stanley Cup champions.

How to Bet on the Stanley Cup Final

As during a regular season, and the play-offs, punters can bet on every match of the final series. The markets usually available for each match include:

• Match Result (regulation time) – This is where you bet on the match result at the end of the sixty minutes regulation time. Of course, because it is at the end of regulation time and not the final result, a draw is possible.
• Match Result (including overtime) – The match result market including overtime means you are betting on the team who will win the match, even if the scores are level at the end of the regulation sixty minutes.
• Correct Score – For punters who wish to bet on the correct score, meaning they must correctly predict the final score of each match. This market is difficult to get right but the rewards are big for those who can be successful in this market.
• Puck Line Handicap – The puck line handicap market is basically a handicap market where one team will start on say – 1.5. This means they are going into the match with a goal deficit of 1.5 so must win by two clear goals to win the bet.
• Over/Under Total Goals – The over/under market is the same as in any sport, with the punter wagering on whether there will be more or less goals than a given number. For example, those believing there will be five goals in a match will bet over 4.5 goals.

As well as betting on each match, there are outright betting markets available for punters to bet on an overall Stanley Cup winner. The odds available on a winner will be greater than what that team will be to win each match of the series, and the odds will be extremely good for those who wagered on them at the beginning of the season.

Bet on the Stanley Cup Final

Before betting on the Stanley Cup Final, especially if you are betting on each individual match in the series as a stand-alone, you must follow a couple of betting tips to ensure you give yourself the best chance of making a profit.

Team Selection

At the start of the Stanley Cup Finals a team could have already played 103 matches that season, eighty-two regular season matches and twenty-one play off matches if each round went to the deciding seventh match in the series.

No matter how fit and strong hockey players are, fatigue and injuries will occur. So, it’s always wise to look at team selection, keep a note of any injuries, and also pay attention to any poor player performances in their previous match. A poor performance could be a sign of tiredness.

Remain Analytical

If you’ve followed an NHL season throughout, you may have become emotionally invested in one particular team. You may have had several winning bets on that team during the campaign or you are a supporter and want to see them win.

It doesn’t matter how your heart feels about a team, it doesn’t matter about previous winning bets, and it doesn’t matter who you want to win, all that matters is factual statistical information which can give you the best chance of making a profit.

Study that information and always make an informed analytical decision when betting on any sport. If you cannot separate your emotions from your analytical thinking, do not bet on the match at all. Or, bet on a different market where you do not have to pick a winner.

Only Bet if You are Sure

Many people, regardless of which sport they bet on, place a bet at the end of a season just for the sake of it. They think they may get lucky one last time during a campaign, or they bet because they know there will be several months until they can bet on that particular team or competition again.

Do not throw your money away just for the sake of betting. As mentioned in the point above, always make an informed betting choice and if you cannot make a selection based on facts and stats, leave the betting for another day.