The home ice advantage is something that all bettors, who have done their reading on NHL betting or who have at least some experience over hockey betting, take into consideration when they decide to wager on a match. And probably this is a logical thing to do, if we think that there has been a lot of discussion on how it affects the final score and how it often “pre-determines” the winner.
Thousands and thousands of words have been devoted to appraising the role of playing at home in ice hockey. And this is also demonstrated on the odds offered by sporta likmes sites and platforms, which generally give a greater advantage to the home teams compared to the away teams.
Three reasons why the home ice advantage works
Traditionally, the home ice advantage had been, reportedly giving more victories in the Stanley Cup finals. And in overall games, statistically, this advantage was more valuable once than it can actually claim to be today. The main reasons that the home ice advantage had been so much stressed by analysts were three:
First, the home ice advantage brings other advantages to the team such as having the last change. Having the last change is indeed very important because it means that you get the advantage of seeing what the other team brings in and then deciding how to match up the players. It gives coaches the benefit of being able to identify weak sports or opportunities in relation to their team’s opponent and accordingly make choices or necessary adjustments.
Second, the home ice advantage gets to boost the players of the team and lift the spirit and the morale of the entire team. Playing in front of fans or generally a friendly audience that supports you and cheers for you boosts your energy, your motivation and your willingness to give everything you’ve got into making it happen. There is nothing more motivating than wanting to give satisfaction to all those fans out there that support the team.
Third, the home ice advantage generally means that the team is not on the way and so the players don’t have to face challenges like fatigue. Playing at home is always more relaxing, not only because the teams are in a place which they know too well and they get to go back to their homes, but also because they have the positive psychology of being within their ‘safety net’.
Or not?
The truth is that lately there is ongoing discussion regarding the degree to which the home ice advantage is really the case of an ‘advantage’ for a team.
In fact, more recent analysis -with the incorporation of the Covid19 period, which has been enlightening in revealing the role of the home ice advantage from a more concrete perspective – has been highlighting a gradually diminishing role that this advantage has over the outcome of a game.
The away team winning rate has gone up in the past few years, showing how the home ice advantage does not play as an important role as it used to – or at least as it was perceived to play.
The home ice advantage hardly decreased when due to the pandemic the games were played with no audiences in the stadiums. Even if the opposite was expected, neither the home team win rate changed nor the away team win rate changed.
But the away team win rate changed in the aftermath of Covid19, increasing from nearly 37% to 45%. There may be a lot of reasons for this including the fact that now the away teams don’t get to have long trips and don’t get to be on the road all the time or the fact that diminishing the role of the advantage gets to have a positive effect in the psychology of the away team.
What does all these mean for betting?
Well, relying on the home ice advantage when betting is not a good strategy. At the end of the day it is the quality of the team that makes the real difference. But we can’t ignore the evidence that there is some kind of a ‘push’ to those who play at home. And on the other hand, we can’t ignore the statistics that give a rise in the win rate of the away team! Remember that the ice advantage if considered in betting, should be done in conjunction with other factors as well.
