Betting after the Olympics
By Richard Gardner
When the NHL returns to action after the Olympics, the playoff race will begin in earnest. Besides the postseason, this is the most popular time for hockey betting at Bodog. As always, bettors will need to make some important judgments on which teams will show up down the stretch and which ones will either fall back or remain back in the standings.
One team that bettors have been waiting all season to get into gear is the Detroit Red Wings. Mike Babcock’s squad has been great for the book, but not so much for the high-profile team’s loyal and plentiful backers. Bettors have been playing the “Well, they have to start winning at some point” card since the Wings finished the month of October with a disappointing 5-4-3 record. It just hasn’t happened yet, and whether it will is becoming less and less certain.
The Wings still feature a stacked roster, with offensive stars like Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg leading the way. Big Johan Franzen’s recent return to the line-up after a 55-game absence due to a left knee injury should also help Detroit, which went into the Olympic break a point out of a playoff spot in the Western Conference.
But the Wings aren’t the same team they were last season. In addition to the departure of Marian Hossa to Chicago, they lost a number of key secondary players over the offseason, including Jiri Hudler and Mikael Samuelsson.
Captain Nicklas Lidstrom is also 39 years old and can’t play as many minutes as he once did on defense.
If there was an NFL betting comparison to the Red Wings, it might be the New England Patriots. Simply put, dynasties don’t last forever.
Another team that’s been good for Bodog, albeit for completely the opposite reason, is the Phoenix Coyotes. Take a team with a small fan base that’s expected to lose and, instead, keeps on winning and you’ve got a sports book’s dream.
The Coyotes don’t have a single superstar playing for them. Shane Doan and Ed Jovanovski are the most recognizable names on the roster, and even those guys have been off the main NHL radar for a while now. Not surprisingly, not many people bet on the Coyotes, but they do on the Coyotes’ opponents.
But the Coyotes play a strict defensive system under coach Dave Tippett and have a goaltender in Ilya Bryzgalov who can steal a game when the offense isn’t clicking. And that’s fairly often. Doan leads Phoenix with 47 points, which is good for 50th in league scoring.
Yet heading into the stretch drive, the Coyotes are fourth in the West, 11 points clear of a playoff spot, with a 37-21-5 record.