Canucks host Avs hoping to extend series dominance

Hockey Betting Lines

02/15/2012 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Vancouver Canucks will try to continue their recent dominance of Colorado when they welcome the Avalanche for tonight's Northwest Division clash at Rogers Arena.

The Canucks have taken all three meetings against the Avalanche this season and have claimed four straight, eight of nine and 12 of the last 14 encounters in this series. Colorado hasn't fared well in British Columbia either, losing four in a row and six of its last seven trips to Vancouver.

Vancouver hopes to use its mastery of the Avs to try and increase its already- comfortable lead atop the Northwest, a division that the Canucks have won in three straight and four of the last five seasons. The Canucks are leading the division with 76 points, placing them 14 points ahead of second-place Calgary.

The Canucks enter tonight having earned at least a point in 10 straight games and they are 7-0-3 over that stretch. After dropping a shootout decision Saturday in Calgary, Vancouver was able to record a shootout victory of its own on Monday against Phoenix.

Ryan Kesler scored the game-winning goal against the Coyotes, as he tallied in the sixth round of the deciding phase to lift Vancouver to a 2-1 triumph. It marked the eighth time in the past 10 games that the Canucks were pushed past regulation.

On the winning score, Kesler moved in slowly and fired a quick wrist shot low to the stick side of Coyotes netminder Jason LaBarbera. Roberto Luongo then stopped Boyd Gordon on Phoenix's final attempt to seal the victory.

Kesler added an assist and David Booth scored in regulation for the Canucks, while Luongo finished with 23 saves in the win.

"There wasn't a lot of room out there. We knew it was going to be a battle," Canucks defenseman Alexander Edler said.

The win over Phoenix kicked off a three-game homestand for Vancouver, which is 16-6-4 as the host team this season.

Canucks defenseman Keith Ballard has sat out the last three games with a neck injury and a possible concussion and he will miss another game tonight. Meanwhile, forward Chris Higgins is expected to return tonight for Vancouver after sitting out the last six games due to an adverse reaction to antibiotics.

Colorado enters this evening on a four-game point streak (2-0-2), but unlike the Canucks, the Avs have won just twice in their last eight trips to the ice.

The Avalanche began a four-game road trip Saturday in St. Louis and were handed a 3-2 overtime loss. All four regulation goals were scored in the first period and Carlo Colaiacovo delivered the game-winner for the Blues with 1:42 left in OT.

Semyon Varlamov made a career-high 41 saves for Colorado in his first start since January 31. Jean-Sebastien Giguere is expected to be back between the pips tonight for the Avs.

Shane O'Brien and former St. Louis defenseman Erik Johnson posted goals for the Avs, who are just three points out of a playoff spot in the Western Conference.

"The points are huge right now," said Avalanche head coach Joe Sacco. "We're in a situation where we need as many as we can get down the stretch."

The OT loss in St. Louis dropped Colorado to 12-12-3 as the road team this season. After tonight, the Avs will complete this trek with stops in Edmonton and Winnipeg.

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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.