NHL Outdoor Game Betting Trends: Home teams are dominating outside

A few times every season, the NHL goes back to its roots with outdoor games. As you would expect, the weather can play a huge factor in these games with ice quality and temperature. Let’s take a look at some NHL outdoor game betting trends and tips.

Don’t forget to check out our complete list of NHL game odds, NHL futures and NHL specials and props.

2023-24 NHL outdoor games

There are four outdoor games on the docket for 2023-24:

Date	Home	Away	Venue	Result
Oct. 29, 2023	Edmonton Oilers	Calgary Flames	Commonwealth Stadium	EDM wins 3-2
Jan. 1, 2024	Seattle Kraken	Vegas Golden Knights	T-Mobile Park	TBD
Feb. 17, 2024	New Jersey Devils	Philadelphia Flyers	MetLife Stadium	TBD
Feb. 18, 2024	New York Islanders	New York Rangers	MetLife Stadium	TBD

NHL outdoor game betting trends since 2018

Situation	Record
Favourites	11-4
Underdogs	4-11
Home	10-5
Away	5-10
Over/Under	7-7-1

There have been 15 outdoor NHL games since 2018 and the favourites have dominated, going 11-4 straight up (73 per cent). That’s an impressive number when you factor in how competitive the NHL has been over the last five or six seasons. For comparison, favourites have won 59.4 per cent of games this season, which is right around the average for most seasons.

There are only two teams out of the six still left to play an outdoor game this season that are winning more than 60 per cent of their games as favourites. That’s the New York Ragers at 77 per cent and the Vegas Golden Knights at 61 per cent.

Home cooking wins out

Home teams have won 10 of the last 15 outdoor games since 2018 and they’re a perfect 3-0 SU over the last calendar year. That success makes sense given home teams are awarded last change, so they have the advantage when it comes to matchups.

The Islanders are 9-4-6 at home this season, but keep in mind the Devils are just 8-8-2 as the home side and the Kraken are 6-8-3.