This is only the second full week back from the college hockey exam break, but already we’re seeing a disturbing trend in major sports books.
The number of available games on DraftKings for the second straight weekend were extremely low – three nationally. As someone who lives in Massachusetts and thus can’t bet on teams from this state, the amount of games was even thinner – just one.
I’m not sure the reason for this. It might have to do with the World Junior tournament as DK has posted lines for every single one of those games. Or it could be that DK and other major books haven’t been making money on college hockey of late and decided to reduce the amount of liability.
Either way, my colleague, Ed Trefzger, who co-hosts the USCHO Edge podcast with me, did some digging to try to find more sources at least to get available lines to talk about game and came across the website oddsportal.com, which finds as many available lines as it can and provides bettors with the average line. Not only is this a source for some sports books with which we were not familiar, but it also allows users to shop around to find the best line.
Thus, this week I’ll be using a few lines from that site for the content of this column. One disclaimer: Unlike a major reputable site like DraftKings, I cannot guarantee the legitimacy of any of these sites. So if you decide to wager through them, do so at your own risk.
But for the entertainment purposes of this column and discussion of some different matchups, here forth are a few games I culled from oddsportal.com.
RIT (-153 average) vs. Clarkson
This game just stood out to me as it isn’t that often you find any Atlantic Hockey team favored, let alone at an average rate of -153. Certainly, this has been an excellent season for RIT and the Tigers are at home, but RIT has beaten Clarkson just once in the 11 times these two teams have played, that coming in the strange COVID years where teams scrambled to find any opponent. RIT is 6-3-0 at home this year, a decent record, but I’m not sure the value is there to hammer RIT with your wagers given the price you have to lay.
Harvard at Arizona State over/under 5.5 goals (-108 over/-124 under)
This hasn’t been Harvard’s season to date. Their offense is sputtering with just 20 goals in 11 games. So I can see why this O/U is so low. But Arizona State’s defense still allows close to three goals a game and its offense scores at a clip closer to four GPG. These two teams have faced one another six times with three games totaling seven goals or more combined (the other three all totaled five goals, just under that 5.5). This one feels like there is a lot of value on the over laying just -108 (and the under at -124 has little value).
Connecticut (+161 average) at Massachusetts
It certainly makes sense given both teams records that UConn is an underdog traveling to UMass on Friday for a single game. But what the bookmakers might not be considering is the impact that the World Junior tournament has on this game. It was thought that Canada would advance to the medal round of the tournament and Czechia would be out after the quarterfinals. The opposite happened. Thus, UMass will be without goaltender Michael Hrabal and forward Dans Locmelis, who play a Friday bronze medal game in Sweden while UConn will be returned Matthew Wood. He could play for UConn if travel back was without issue. Not sure this is enough to tilt the tables, but certainly worth considering if you’re making a wager on this game in either direction.
Games to avoid this week: Clarkson (+116) at RIT (-153)
Best bet: Harvard at Arizona State over 5.5 goals (-108)
