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03/19/2009 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Vancouver Canucks will be trying to maintain their recent dominance on home ice when the St. Louis Blues enter GM Place for tonight's battle with the Western Conference's hottest team.
Vancouver established a new franchise record with its 10th consecutive home victory on Tuesday, when Mats Sundin and Ryan Kesler each recorded a goal and an assist to lead the Canucks to a 4-2 triumph over Dallas.
Roberto Luongo continued his strong play in goal by making 24 saves in the win. The All-Star netminder is 11-2-1 with a 2.04 goals against average over his last 14 starts and yielded two or less goals in 12 of those games.
Kesler has been on a tear as well, as the young center has compiled three goals and nine assists over his last nine outings.
The Canucks have not lost in Vancouver since an overtime defeat to Minnesota on January 31. That setback, ironically, was the team's ninth in a row at home prior to this current hot streak.
Vancouver has amassed a stellar 14-3-1 overall record since that loss to the Wild and has closed within one point of Chicago for the Western Conference's fourth playoff seed. The Canucks are now just five points back of first-place Calgary in the Northwest Division standings as well.
The Blues began a key three-game road trip with Tuesday's shootout loss to Edmonton, which pushed St. Louis two points back of the Oilers for eighth place in the West.
Chris Mason performed well between the pipes for the Blues, stopping 33-of-34 chances prior to the shootout, but St. Louis mustered just David Backes' power-play tally in 32 shots on the Oilers' Dwayne Roloson.
The Blues did register a win in Vancouver earlier this season, a 6-4 decision on January 9 in which the team scored three times in the final six minutes. Luongo did not play in that game due to a groin injury.
The Canucks returned the favor with a 6-4 victory in St. Louis last month, with Sundin notching a pair of goals in that one, and are 7-3-0 in their last 10 matchups with the Blues. St. Louis has lost four of the five games played in Vancouver during that stretch.
St. Louis, which is 13-16-4 as the guest this season, will conclude its present trek Friday in Calgary.
<< Eastern Conference-leading Bruins host Kings
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Boston Bruins will try to create some much needed space
at the top of the Eastern Conference when they host the Los Angeles Kings at
TD Banknorth Garden.
The Bruins have been the top seed in the East for most of the se
<< Habs hope to continue dominance of Sens
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Montreal Canadiens hope their recent dominance of the
Ottawa Senators can help them snap a three-game losing streak, as the Habs
visit their Northeast Division rivals tonight at Scotiabank Place.
The Canadiens are 4-0
<< Oilers kick off key road trip in Denver
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The playoff-hopeful Edmonton Oilers start up an important
three-game road trip that begins with this evening's clash with the Colorado
Avalanche from the Pepsi Center.
Edmonton enters its trek holding a slim one-point edge
<< Top-seeded Cavs welcome Blazers to town
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Cleveland Cavaliers have catapulted to the top of the
Eastern Conference thanks to their fine play at home. Tonight they will resume
a four-game residency against the talented Portland Trail Blazers at Quicken
Loans A
Sharks try to regain groove in tilt with Predators >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Even though they have already locked up their second
straight Pacific Division title, the San Jose Sharks know they are not playing
their best hockey right now.
San Jose will attempt to reverse that trend in tonight's batt
Terps tangle with Golden Bears in West Regional action >>
Kansas City, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Maryland Terrapins and California
Golden Bears meet in first-round action of the NCAA Tournament's West Regional
this afternoon, from the Sprint Center in Kansas City.
Gary Williams' Terrapins finished
Zips and Zags clash in Portland >>
Portland, OR (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Making their 11th straight NCAA Tournament
appearance, the Gonzaga Bulldogs stay close to home in the first round of the
South Regional as they contend against the Akron Zips at the Rose Garden in
Portland.
W
Nova hopes for some home cooking against Eagles >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The third-seeded Villanova Wildcats have
the advantage of opening the 2009 NCAA Tournament in front of a friendly
Philadelphia crowd and against the 14th-seeded American University Eagles in
East Region actio
In any football or basketball game (the main sports that use point spreads) there are two teams playing against each other.
Those teams, though, are rarely exactly evenly matched – meaning that typically one team has a better chance than the other to win the game. If bettors were allowed to bet on who was simply going to win the game, smart ones would obviously bet on the better team (likely winning more than 50% of the time in the process).
If winning were that easy the Las Vegas and online sportsbooks would stop taking any bets! This is where the point spread comes in: the basic function of the point spread is to balance the likelihood of each team “winning” by adjusting the final score by the point spread. After this adjustment is made you get the Against The Spread result (ATS result for short).
Let’s look at Super Bowl XXXIX, New England Patriots vs. Philadelphia Eagles. Most people believed the defending champ Patriots to be the better team – so if betting were simply based upon which team would win the game, an uneven majority of people would have wagered on New England. But, by using the point spread, the bookmakers adjusted the terms of the bet, evening the proposition so about half the people believed the Pats to be the smart bet, while the other half considered Philly to be the smart bet.
New England Patriots -7 vs. Philadelphia Eagles
The better team, called the Favorite, is expected to win the game and must “give” or “lay” points to the weaker team. The favorite is listed with a minus sign and the number of points they are favored by (e.g., New England -7)
In the case of our example, New England must not only win the game, but they must win by more than 7 points for Pats bettors to have a winning ATS result. An Eagles bettor wins his bet either if:
There was also the possibility that the final score could land exactly on the spread number (for example, the Pats winning 28-21 when -7), which is called a “push” or “no action” and a refund is then issued to bettors of both teams.
The same game with the same point spread can be considered from the weaker team’s perspective: The Underdog (Philly in the case of our example) is not expected to win the game and online football betting thus receives or “gets” points given by the stronger team. When a game is stated from the underdog’s perspective the team is listed with a plus sign and the number of points they are underdogs by:
Philadelphia Eagles +7 vs. New England Patriots
Keep in mind that Philadelphia +7 and New England -7 is the same point spread on the same game, simply stated differently. The first is from the underdog’s perspective; the later is from the favorite’s.
Not a must, but for some a mathematical approach is insightful. You can determine the ATS winner by either:
Let’s look at the actual result of Super Bowl XXXIX: New England 24 Philadelphia 21
The favorite, New England, won the game but not by more than the point spread they were favored by (7), so the ATS result was a LOSS for Pats bettors.
Looking at it from the underdog’s perspective, Philly did not win the game, but they lost by less than the point spread (7), so the ATS result was a WIN for Eagle bettors.
Mathematically considered, 24 for the favorite Pats minus 7 equals 17, which is less than the 20 the Eagles scored, so the underdog Eagles win the ATS result (or you could figure 20 plus 7 equals 27 for the Eagles, which is more than 24 for the Pats).
Emily’s boyfriend understood the point spread and wagered $100 on the Eagles at +7. The Eagles may not have gotten a Super Bowl ring, but since they won the ATS result Emily’s boyfriend cashed his bet – giving him money to take her out to a nice dinner.
And now hopefully you understand how to read point spreads, putting you one step closer to joining the fun of sports betting.
To visit this internet sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting and World Series odds.
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