Giguere seeks to continue hot streak as Leafs host Sharks
Hockey Betting Lines
02/08/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The new-look Toronto Maple Leafs will test themselves tonight against the top team in the Western Conference, as they host the San Jose Sharks at Air Canada Centre.
The Maple Leafs ended January on a six-game losing streak, but have won two of three since pulling off a pair of trades last Sunday to acquire goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere and defenseman Dion Phaneuf from Anaheim and Calgary, respectively.
Phaneuf has started quietly, with just one assist in three games with the Leafs, but Giguere has been a revelation in net for Toronto. The veteran backstop is 2-0 with the Maple Leafs and has yet to allow a goal in posting a pair of shutouts with his new team.
Giguere stopped 30 shots in Tuesday's 3-0 home win over New Jersey, and after sitting out Friday's road game against the Devils, posted another shutout in Saturday's meeting with visiting Ottawa. Giguere once again stopped 30 shots as Toronto brought the Senators' 11-game win streak to a screeching halt with a dominant 5-0 victory at Air Canada Centre.
Giguere, a former Conn Smythe winner with the Ducks, has three shutouts on the season and 34 in his career. The 32-year-old is the first goalie in Maple Leafs history to record shutouts in his first two games with the team, and he is expected to get a crack at a third straight blanking when he gets the start again tonight.
"It's a young man's game; when you get into your 30's, you're getting old," said the 32-year-old Giguere. "It's nice to have those young guys, it's refreshing. They have a lot of energy, they're youthful. They'll make mistakes, but they're honest mistakes. We can all accept that. It's a learning process for everybody, but right now everybody is very focused."
Phil Kessel and Luke Schenn each scored twice and had an assist for the Maple Leafs. Tyler Bozak also scored for Toronto.
The Maple Leafs, who are tied for last in the Eastern Conference with 49 points, are just 11-12-5 as the host this year, but have won three of their last five at ACC.
San Jose, meanwhile, comes into tonight as the top team in the West with 85 points and trails Washington by just three points for most in the NHL. The Sharks have won two straight and are 8-1-1 in their last 10 outings.
The Sharks have won the first two tests of a six-game road trip that will take them into the NHL's Olympic break. San Jose earned wins in St. Louis and Nashville to improve its road mark to 19-6-2 on the season.
San Jose posted a 4-3 decision in the Music City on Saturday, as Dany Heatley's power-play goal in the third period proved to be the game-winner at Nashville's Sommet Center.
Heatley finished with two goals and an assist while Rob Blake and Brad Staubitz each lit the lamp for the Sharks. Evgeni Nabokov stopped 35 shots in the win.
"The ice was bad, the puck was bouncing a little bit," Heatley said. "There were a lot of mistakes. Fortunately, we took advantage of a couple of power plays."
Tonight marks the only scheduled meeting of the season between the Sharks and Leafs. San Jose notched a 5-2 home victory in the lone encounter between the teams in 2008-09 and has won three straight in the series. Each team has three wins and a tie in the seven last matchups held in Toronto.
Indianapolis, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The red-hot Butler Bulldogs continue their run at a perfect Horizon League campaign tonight, as they host the Loyola Chicago Ramblers at Hinkle Fieldhouse. The Bulldogs are enjoying another terrific season
<< Jayhawks and Longhorns duke it out in Austin
Austin, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A pair of Big 12 heavyweights collide in Austin
this evening, as the top-ranked Kansas Jayhawks take on the ninth-ranked Texas
Longhorns from the Frank Erwin Center.
Bill Self's Jayhawks sit atop the Big 12 stan
<< Villanova visits West Virginia in Big East showdown
Morgantown, WV (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Fresh off their first Big East Conference
loss of the season, the Villanova Wildcats will attempt to get back on track
in Morgantown against the West Virginia Mountaineers this evening.
Villanova dropped a 1
<< Colonials face tall task in clash with Panthers
Pittsburgh, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Pittsburgh Panthers take a break from
their Big East Conference schedule this evening to battle the Robert Morris
Colonials of the Northeast Conference at the Petersen Events Center in the
Steel City.
R
<< Spurs resume road trip against Lakers
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The San Antonio Spurs face the toughest test of their
annual Rodeo Road Trip when they face the defending NBA champion Los Angeles
Lakers at Staples Center tonight.
Each year around this time the Spurs hit the road
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Colorado Avalanche will try to forge a tie atop the Northwest Division standings tonight, when they welcome the St. Louis Blues for a battle at Pepsi Center. The Avalanche have 70 points and are two behind idle Vancouv
Devils, Flyers ready to renew rivalry >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ilya Kovalchuk will seek his first goal in a New Jersey
Devils uniform when his new team visits the rival Philadelphia Flyers tonight
at Wachovia Center for the opener of a home-and-home series between Atlantic
Division foes.
Streaking Kings try to continue mastery of rival Ducks >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Los Angeles Kings will be aiming to extend a franchise-
record winning streak tonight. If recent history is any indication, the
Anaheim Ducks may not be posing much of a problem towards achieving that feat.
The Kings s
Coyotes hope to rebound against visiting Oilers >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - After stumbling in their last trip to the ice, the Phoenix
Coyotes will be seeking a bounce-back performance when they return to
Jobing.com Arena tonight to take on an Edmonton Oilers squad trying to avoid
setting a franchise
Bolton's Cahill could miss remainder of season >>
Bolton, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Bolton central defender Gary Cahill is set
to miss the rest of the season due to a blot clot in his arm.
The 24-year-old, who is on the fringes of the England senior squad, missed the
weekend draw with Ful
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.
MySportsbook.com is an online sportsbook that aims to keep betting fun. The company sees itself as a premier provider of a top-shelf gambling entertainment experience. MySportsbook knows that this can not be accomplished if gamblers are struggling through the betting process, so the emphasis is put on simplicity and ease of use.
Established in 1997, MySportsbook was the first sportsbook to offer the Instant eCheck method, and has since continued on to be one of the most innovate and fastest growing internet sportsbooks the industry has seen. A player doesn’t have to look very far before coming across one of the many sportsbooks that have cloned MySportsbook’s written policies, web pages and advertising campaign, hoping to bottle some of MySportsbook’s magic.
Although MySportsbook’s growth is largely attributed to their talented in-house marketing team, every successful bookmaker will agree that bringing the players in is only half of the battle. In a time when most internet sportsbook were nickel-and-diming players, MySportsbook was creating ways to make bonuses automatic and absent of fine print, while offering all payouts free of charge. This sportsbook also accepts Visa & Mastercard sportsbook.
Almost everything on the online sportsbook site is set in the model of simplicity, making the CS clerk’s job easy as well. Each account action made online results in an automated email sent to the client. When calling MySportsbook, the player feels as if his call is in the united states as no accents can be heard through a state of the art telecommunications system. Few online sportsbooks can compete with My Sportsbook when it comes to offering a fun and hassle-free experience to the small to moderate sized gambler.
To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your bet on football needs.