Panthers try to keep rolling in visit to Avalanche

Hockey Betting Lines

03/11/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Florida Panthers will try to win four straight games for the first time this season when they visit the Colorado Avalanche tonight at the Pepsi Center.

The Panthers come into this game six points back of a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference but appear to be peaking at the right time. They are coming off of a victory over Minnesota on Tuesday in which they held the Wild to a Florida franchise record-low 11 shots while picking up their first victory versus the team since 2001.

It didn't look that way early, as the Wild scored a pair of first-period goals. However, Michael Frolik and Cory Stillman scored in the third period, with Frolik lighting the lamp for the fourth time in three games and Stillman forcing overtime with 9:20 left in the frame. Stillman then scored the lone tally of the shootout session in a 3-2 victory, the 500th in franchise history for Florida.

"It's though to come back, but they didn't get a lot of shots -- going into the third period we had only given up five shots," said Stillman. "We continued to put pucks on the net and knew good things were going to happen."

Tomas Vokoun needed to make just nine saves while stopping all four skaters in the shootout for the Panthers, who haven't won four straight since a seven- game run from March 2-16, 2008. Florida also halted a six-game skid on the road by winning the opener of a three-game trip, picking up its first victory as the guest since January 14.

While the Panthers are fighting to remain in the playoff race, the Avalanche are losing the chase for home ice in the first round. Colorado dropped a 6-4 test to Northwest Division-leading Vancouver on Tuesday -- blowing a pair of three-goal leads -- to fall five points back of the Canucks in the division. The Avs also trail Los Angeles by three points for fifth overall in the West.

"It was a bad game," said Paul Stastny, who matched his career high of 50 assists first set as a rookie in 2006-07 in the loss . "It was a good first period, but after that mental lapses hurt us."

Colorado, which has lost four of its last six, got a pair of goals from rookie Matt Duchene on Tuesday, and he leads all first-year skaters with 23 goals and 47 points.

Chris Stewart also extended his recent hot play with a goal, giving him eight goals and eight assists over his last nine games, while Peter Mueller scored to give him a pair of tallies and four helpers in four games since being acquired in a trade from Phoenix.

Craig Anderson racked up 26 saves in the losing effort, just Colorado's second in its last eight home games.

The Avalanche are hosting the Panthers for the first time since 2007, with the last three meetings between the teams all taking place in Florida. That includes a 6-5 shootout win by the Panthers at home on December 2, their second straight win in the series.

Stephen Weiss had a hat trick for Florida in that game and scored the lone goal in the shootout, while Scott Clemmensen made 29 saves. Stastny had a goal and three assists for the Avs, Duchene had a pair of goals and an assist and Stewart notched a goal and two helpers.

Anderson made 39 saves before exiting in overtime with a neck injury suffered when Florida's Keith Ballard crashed into him. Anderson, who spent the previous three seasons as a backup with the Panthers, missed the next four games but will make his 22nd straight start tonight.

Florida has lost three of its last four in Colorado, where it hasn't won since January 2, 2003.

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Sportsbooks to bet on football

Recently I had an email debate with an angry reader who said I did not understand "the science of oddsmaking", as he called it.

He said I was wrong for suggesting oddsmakers care about who wins or loses games.

"Oddsmakers only care about splitting the betting public 50/50 on both sides of the line and keeping the commission (a.k.a. juice)," he wrote.

He might have been right about not understanding "the science of oddsmaking". After all, I'm not an oddsmaker. That said, I stick to my assertion that oddsmakers (a.k.a. sportbooks) often do care about who wins games.

Granted, as a general rule, sportsbooks try to balance their action so that they're not exposed to big losses. However, there are times when this is difficult to pull off, regardless of how much a line has moved. There are also times when that general rule is ignored and a book pursues risk.

Generally speaking, it's safe to say the books in Vegas are risk-adverse. Unlike in the past when the wise guys ruled the town, Vegas is now corporate and the goal of most casinos is to make as much money as possible with as little risk as possible.

Thus, Vegas sportsbooks try everything in their power to balance the action. They're satisfied simply collecting the juice. But these profits are small, especially compared to the take from other casino games, namely slot machines.

Because the profits at Vegas sportsbooks are so small, you could argue that many casinos operate sportsbooks simply as a novelty to keep the tourists happy.

With a growing aversion to risk, it should come as no surprise that Vegas bookmakers have been panicking this NFL season.

Despite huge pointspreads, a disproportionate percentage of bettors are still laying their money on favorites like the Eagles, Colts, Pats and Vikings rather than the dogs (a common trend for the largely recreational bettors that visit Vegas).

And much to the dismay of the books, those favorites are finding ways to cover the thick chalk. In fact, prior to Week 7, the four teams listed above are a combined 16-2-2 (88 percent) against the spread. (The tables turned dramatically in Week 7, but more on that later.)

The result has been an early-season beating for the books, and a bonanza for bettors.

While Vegas increasingly hates risk, it's no longer a major player in the sports betting world. Most of the betting action now takes place offshore where sportsbooks are not as obsessed about balance. In fact, some books encourage exposure to risk because the rewards can be so much bigger.

Consider MySportsbook.com. On its website, the book has odds pages which actually display the amount of action it's getting on games. In other words, you can see how much action the book is taking on both sides of a pointspread, moneyline or over/under.

One look at these numbers and it's obvious MySportsbook.com does not balance every game. In fact, far from it.

Take last weekend's matchup between St. Louis and Miami. By game time on Sunday, 83 percent of the betting action at MySportsbook.com was on the Rams; only 17 percent was on Miami.

What's interesting is that MySportsbook.com opened the pointspread with Miami at +6 1/2. By game time, the spread had lowered to +5.

That goes contrary to the balancing theory. If MySportsbook.com had wanted to balance the action, it would have given Miami more points; instead, it took away 1 1/2. World Series odds are now up as well.

MySportsbook.com exposed itself to even more to risk, and rolled the dice on the underdog Dolphins. Why? I contacted a representative with the book to find out. His answer was simple.

"The line moved early based on 'smart money' from sharp players," said Jeff Gilroy, a spokesperson for the book. "We also knew from early in the week that we would need Miami, therefore (we dropped) the spread to encourage Rams money.

"At the end of the day, we liked the home team."

So the conclusion is this: MySportsbook.com respected the sharp action, and gambled that the sharp bettors had a better take on the game than the recreational bettors, who were hammering the visiting Rams.

In the end, the gamble paid off. Miami, desperate for a win in front of its home fans, pounded the overrated Rams, who are terrible on the road and even worse on grass. Final score: 31-14 Fish.

MySportsbook.com was also heavily exposed on numerous favorites in Week 7, including Philadelphia, Seattle and Denver. All three failed to cover.

The fact that sportsbooks are exposed to risk on certain games is really nothing new. The fact, that Sportsbook.com is willing to show the public where it's exposed is intriguing.

Armed with this type of information, bettors can make more educated wagers. They can get an idea where the sharp money is going and conversely where the public money is headed.

MySportsbook.com is opening up its cashbox, letting bettors look inside and challenging them to take their best shot at grabbing the cash.

To visit this online football betting got to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting odds needs. Mysportsbook.com online sportsbook accepts Visa and Mastercard credit cards.