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02/20/2007 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Montreal Canadiens will try to post back-to-back wins for the first time in a month as they welcome the Washington Capitals for tonight's showdown at the Bell Centre.
The Canadiens ended a six-game losing streak Sunday by posting a 3-2 victory in Columbus. Jaroslav Halak made 31 saves in his NHL debut to guide Montreal to the close win at Nationwide Arena. Saku Koivu, Michael Ryder and Francis Bouillon all scored for the Canadiens.
Halak was called into action after Cristobal Huet suffered a hamstring tear in Montreal's 5-2 loss at New Jersey on Wednesday. Huet had surgery to repair the tear on Sunday and will be out indefinitely.
Montreal has fallen into a tie with Toronto and the New York Islanders for the eighth and final postseason berth in the Eastern Conference. All three teams have 66 points on the year.
The Capitals have lost three straight games and are coming off a close defeat in Pittsburgh on Sunday. Mark Recchi, Evgeni Malkin and Maxime Talbot registered goals as Sidney Crosby's Penguins outlasted Alexander Ovechkin and the Caps by a 3-2 count.
Crosby finished with only an assist and Ovechkin went without a point, a bit of an anti-climactic outcome to the anticipated duel between the NHL's top two young stars.
Richard Zednik and Alexander Semin had the goals for Washington, while Brent Johnson finished with 23 stops.
Ovechkin, who leads Washington in goals (34) and assists (38), has gone two straight games without a point and has just one goal and one helper over his last seven tests.
The Capitals have dropped to 14th place in the East and are trailed only by the Philadelphia Flyers.
Tonight marks the end of a three-game road trip for Washington, which is just 9-15-5 away from D.C. this year and has lost six straight and 12 of its last 13 as the visitor.
Montreal and Washington have split a pair of meetings this year, but the Habs have taken six of the last 10 matchups. The Capitals have also walked away defeated in three of their last four trips to Montreal.
<< Wild try to end futility against Dallas
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Minnesota Wild will try to stop their longest current
losing streak against any team in the league when they host the Dallas Stars
this evening at Xcel Energy Center for the final time this season.
Minnesota has droppe
<< Nuggets, Spurs clash in San Antonio
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The San Antonio Spurs have recovered from their eight-game
road trip and return to the AT&T Center this evening to host the Denver
Nuggets.
San Antonio, which is second in the Southwest standings, went 4-4 on the swing
a
<< Pistons visit Central Division-rival Milwaukee
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Central Division-leading Detroit Pistons try to
get back on the winning track tonight when they hit the road to visit the
Milwaukee Bucks at the Bradley Center.
Detroit had its seven-game winning streak halted with las
<< Argonauts ink QB McMahon
Toronto, Ontario (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Toronto Argonauts signed former NFL
quarterback Mike McMahon on Tuesday.
In 29 career NFL games, spread over five seasons with Detroit and
Philadelphia, McMahon completed 229 of 515
Lightning try to rebound against Panthers >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The first-place Tampa Bay Lightning will attempt to avenge
a weekend loss to the Florida Panthers when the Southeast Division rivals
complete a home-and-home series tonight at St. Pete Times Forum.
Florida got the upper ha
Line of Scrimmage: Norv Turner - Bad Things Happen in Threes >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - They're rejoicing in Denver, Kansas City,
and Oakland right about now.
Norv Turner is an NFL head coach for the third time, having taken over for
Marty Schottenheimer in San Diego, and the rest of the AFC
Martin comes up big both on track and off >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Mark Martin won the 2007 Daytona 500.
Sure, he didn't get the trophy, the huge check or drenched by champagne in
Victory Lane, but that doesn't change the fact that he won the race.
In typical N
Jazz have what it takes to hold on in Northwest Division >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Utah (35-17) is in first place in the Northwest
Division, 8 1/2 games ahead of the second place Denver Nuggets. Led by All-
Stars Carmelo Anthony and Allen Iverson, the Nuggets will be primed to make a
run at the Jazz.
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.
Super Bowl XLIII is now set, the Arizona Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Steelers will meet each other on February 1st in Tampa's Raymond James Stadium to battle it out for the coveted Lombardi Trophy. The game kicks off at 6:00pm ET on NBC with announcers Al Michaels and John Madden covering the on-field action. Super Bowl XLIII betting odds at online bookmaker MySportsbook.com have the Steelers listed as an early -6.5 against the spread favorite.Super Bowl XLIII Betting Odds
Pittsburgh earned their passage to the big game by beating their division rival, the Baltimore Ravens, 23-14 in yesterday's AFC Championship Game. The Steelers jumped on Baltimore early, building a 13-0 first half lead, and never let up on their way to a fairly easy win. Although the Ravens did close to within two points in the fourth quarter, it never appeared as if they had enough offense to pull off the upset.
The Steelers dominating defense held Baltimore to a total of 198 yards while allowing them to convert just three third downs in 13 attempts. Pittsburgh also forced quarterback Joe Flacco into three interceptions, one of which safety Troy Polamalu returned fourty yards for a touchdown.
The Cardinals, by far the playoff team with the longest odds to reach Super Bowl XLIII, did so yesterday with a 32-25 upset of the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC Championship. Arizona charged out of the gates and built a 24-6 halftime lead that had the Eagles venerable defense reeling. Quarterback Kurt Warner and wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald did most of the damage, connecting on three first half touchdowns.
Arizona, however, could not sustain their momentum and the Eagles took a 25-24 with 10:45 left to play in the fourth. The Cardinals, with the franchise's first Super Bowl appearance hanging in the balance, mounted a fourteen play, 72 yard touchdown drive that consumed 7:52 off the clock. Warner hit running back Tim Hightower on a short screen for the go-ahead, game clinching score that will forever live in Cardinal infamy.
MySportsbook.com's Super Bowl XLIII Betting Odds:
Pittsburgh Steelers -6.5 (-110), Over 46.5 (-110), -260 (Money line)
Arizona Cardinals +6.5 (-110), Under 46.5 (-110), +220 (Money line)
Matt Foust won both of his conference championship plays yesterday and he is ready to serve up plenty of Super Bowl action. Each individual play costs $15.00, however, MySportsbook.com recommends purchasing Matt's NFL Playoff Package which includes all of Matt's Super Bowl props and picks from just $45.00.
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