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02/07/2012 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Another battle for first place in the Southeast Division is on tap tonight, as the Washington Capitals host the Florida Panthers at the Verizon Center.
Florida enters tonight with a one-point lead over the Capitals for the top spot in the division. The Panthers trailed Washington by one point when the clubs met last Wednesday and Florida grabbed the division lead with a 4-2 win over the visiting Caps.
Washington has won the last four Southeast titles, while the Panthers have never won a division crown and haven't even qualified for the playoffs since 2000. Florida has taken two of the first three meetings with the Caps this season, but Washington has won three in a row and six of the last seven encounters in D.C.
The Caps have a strong 18-7-1 record on home ice this year, while Florida is just 11-11-4 as the guest.
The Panthers had won their first two games following the All-Star break before getting slammed Saturday in Tampa. The Lightning rode a hat trick from Martin St. Louis en route to the decisive 6-3 victory.
Former Tampa Bay forward Sean Bergenheim ended with a goal and an assist for the Panthers, while Mikael Samuelsson and Tomas Fleischmann also lit the lamp. Samuelsson had two goals in last week's win over the Capitals and has four goals and one assist during a four-game point streak.
Scott Clemmensen stopped 27-of-32 shots and was pulled briefly in favor of Brian Foster, who made his NHL debut at the end of the second period. Foster stopped the only shot he faced before Clemmensen returned for the start of the final period.
"We had a tough second period to say the least," Panthers head coach Kevin Dineen said. "We got off to a tough start and I think we were our own worst enemy so that was certainly the difference."
With both Jose Theodore and Jacob Markstrom dealing with knee injuries, Clemmensen has started the last five games for the Panthers. Both Theodore and Markstrom are close to returning, but Foster may be used as the backup again tonight.
The Capitals have lost three of four and five of their last seven games and they split a pair of tests this weekend. Washington shut out the Canadiens in Montreal in Saturday's 3-0 decision, but the Caps were dealt a 4-1 home loss by Boston on Sunday.
The Bruins scored twice in the first period to take an early 2-0 lead and Tim Thomas stopped 35-of-36 shots to make the edge hold up.
Marcus Johansson scored the lone goal for the Capitals in the third period and Tomas Vokoun gave up three goals on 29 shots in the loss.
"We had a lot of chances, but Thomas came up big," said Washington head coach Dale Hunter. "A goalie as good as Thomas can beat you by himself some nights."
Alex Ovechkin fired seven shots on net in Sunday's loss, but the Russian forward has not registered a point in two tilts since serving a three-game suspension. He has 20 goals and 27 assists in 40 career games against the Panthers and has one assist in two tests versus Florida this year.
Caps forward Brooks Laich is not expected to play tonight after suffering an injured left knee against the Bruins. Washington is still without defenseman Mike Green (sports hernia) and forward Nicklas Backstrom (concussion), but defenseman Dmitry Orlov is expected to play despite getting hit in the face with pucks in both games this weekend.
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Pier
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the deser
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Brian Elliott makes his return to Scotiabank Place this eve
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Pacers try to rebound vs. Jazz >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Indiana Pacers had their season-high four-game winning
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(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - There may not be a more confident goaltender in the league
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positive feelings heading into Tuesday night after the way it won its last
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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.
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