Assuming you already know the rules of hockey, and are looking for statistical information, the current season standings are found here: https://www.nhl.com/standings/league. On this table, you'll see some letters and numbers (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_hockey_statistics). Take this with a grain of salt, I am by no means a professional. When hosting bets, I'll look for matchups with the closest [W-L-OT] stats. When betting, the stats that I look for are "GP - W - L - OT - HOME - AWAY - STRK". Depending on how lucky you feel, bet on either statistically superior teams, or bet on the underdog.

Take for example tomorrows matchups:

Edmonton Oilers [24-34-7]
Columbus Blue Jackets [26-30-8]
The numbers provided are just the [W-L-OT] stats which gives the impression that Columbus has a winning advantage.
Going further into the stats shows HOME:13-12-6 AWAY: 13-18-2 STRK: L1 which tells me that CBJ don't suffer from home-field-advantage, and currently on a one-game losing streak.
Looking now at Edmonton (second from last), HOME: 16-14-2 AWAY: 8-20-5 STRK: W2 which tells me that Edmonton sucks at away games and is on a two-game winning streak already.
By all means, it looks like Edmonton is going to lose but I bet on them anyway because why the hell not

Now take this information, and apply it to the other game that's being played, and you'll see an almost guaranteed win for Washington; however I included this matchup because there's only three games played on Friday and this matchup is between two top ranked teams.
New York Rangers [37-20-6] (Metropolitan Division)
Washington Capitals [47-12-4] (Metropolitan Division)