Hockey betting will pick up as the Olympics begin next month with Canada the heavy favorite to win the gold medal. It is very possible that hockey betting on the Olympics might get more attention than NHL betting gets on a regular basis. Hockey betting is likely to have Canada as the odds-on favorite to win the Olympic gold. Canada has a roster full of superstar players and they are simply better than everyone else. Only Russia looks capable of springing a surprise in hockey betting. Sweden and the United States are the other two teams with outside chances in hockey betting. The Czech Republic, Finland and Slovakia are longshots while Germany, Latvia, Belarus and Norway are real longshots.
Why is Canada the heavy favorite in hockey betting? They have a Hall of Fame goaltender in Martin Brodeur, the biggest superstar in hockey in Sidney Crosby and a loaded defense. Canada also has Roberto Luongo and Marc-Andre Fleury to backup Brodeur in goal. Up front they have a lot of talent that regularly impacts NHL betting with Crosby, Rick Nash, Joe Thornton, Jerome Iginla, Patrick Marleau, Dany Heatley, Ryan Getzlaf, Brenden Morrow, Corey Perry, Michael Richards, Eric Staal, Jonathan Toews and Patrice Bergeron. The defense is led by Scott Niedermayer and Dan Boyle. They also have Chris Pronger, Drew Doughty, Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook and Shea Weber. The chemistry for this Canada team really looks good and they are a deserving favorite.
NHL betting is popular in Canada so there will be a lot of interest in the Canadian team. Anything less than a gold medal will be unacceptable for the talent-laden Canada squad. This Canada team looks to be very well put together unlike four years ago when reputations seemed to be more important than talent.
Hockey betting on the Olympics starts with picking a team to win it all but there will be a lot of individual game action. It all begins on Tuesday, February 16th with the United States facing Switzerland, Canada vs. Norway and Russia vs. Latvia. It continues the next day with Finland vs. Belarus, Sweden vs. Germany and the Czech Republic vs. Slovakia. There will be a number of games in the preliminary round before teams move on to the second round and eventually the medal round.
NHL betting will take a break during the Olympics but the action should be great and probably will be more popular.