Lombardi, Boyd help Flames burn Habs

Hockey Betting Lines

02/09/2009 - Calgary, AB (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Matthew Lombardi and Dustin Boyd scored short- handed goals during the pivotal second period, as the Calgary Flames beat the Canadiens, 6-2, sending Montreal to its eighth loss in 10 games.

Dion Phaneuf scored the go-ahead goal just 32 seconds after Lombardi tied it, as the Flames snapped a season-high four-game skid. Rene Bourque, Mike Cammalleri and David Moss also lit the lamp, while Miikka Kiprusoff stopped 22 shots. Lombardi finished with a goal and two assists.

Matt D'Agostini and Tomas Plekanec had first-period goals for the Canadiens, who have lost their last three contests, having been outscored 14-6 during that span. Jaroslav Halak had 35 saves for Montreal in the opener of a six- game road trip.

Down 2-1 to start the second period, the Flames were energized thanks to spectacular short-handed play and 20 shots in the middle period. Bourque was called for interference for banging into Halak, but Lombardi scored at 11:36 on a breakaway, tucking a backhander past the netminder.

A short time later, Phaneuf scored on a shot from the slot through a screen, and Kiprusoff kept the game tied with two minutes left in the second when he made a great sprawling pad stop on Andrei Kostitsyn.

Boyd made it 4-2 with another short-handed goal, this one with 1:17 remaining in the period, another breakaway, for his first goal in 16 games. The goal came with Robyn Regehr in the penalty box for kneeing.

It became 5-2 at 6:57 of the third. Lombardi sent the puck from the left corner toward the slot, where it bounced off Cammalleri before Bourque mopped up with the rebound for his 18th goal of the season.

Moss accounted for the final margin with a power play score at 11:51 of the third.

D'Agostini scored on a snap shot from the right circle 10:17 into the opening period, but the Flames tied it less than three minutes later on Cammalleri's 28th goal of the season when he redirected a dribbling puck in front of the net.

Plekanec's goal, with 1:19 remaining in the first, came off a 2-on-1 break. Alex Kovalev sent a pass from the left circle to below the right one for the goal as Kiprusoff was out of position.

Game Notes

The Canadiens will visit Edmonton on Wednesday, while Calgary's next contest is the same night at Anaheim...Montreal has lost six in a row on the road...The Canadiens were 0-for-4 on the power play, while Calgary was 1-for-5...Roman Hamrlik had two assists for Montreal.

Wwwsportsinteraction Hockey Betting News

<< Without All-Stars, Hornets get upended by Grizzlies
Memphis, TN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Rookie star O.J. Mayo scored 22 points and pulled down 16 rebounds, as the Memphis Grizzlies defeated the undermanned New Orleans Hornets, 85-80, in a poor shooting display at the FedEx Forum. Mike Conley

<< Defending champion Almagro has tough first-round win in Brazil
Costa do Sauipe, Brazil (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Defending champion Nicolas Almagro of Spain had a rough first-round match, but got by Brazilian wild card Ricardo Hocevar, 7-6 (7-4), 7-5 on Monday at the $562,500 Brasil Open. The top-seeded Alm

<< Sessions, Bucks snap slide against Rockets
Milwaukee, WI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ramon Sessions led a balanced scoring attack with 26 points to go with seven assists, leading Milwaukee to a 124-112 victory over Houston and snapping the Bucks' eight-game losing streak against the Roc

<< No. 8 UNC pulls away late to rout fourth-ranked Duke
Chapel Hill, NC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Rashanda McCants scored 22 points, including 19 in the second half, and grabbed nine rebounds to lead No. 8 North Carolina past fourth-ranked Duke, 75-60, at the Smith Center. Jessica Breland chipped in 14

<< Clemmensen, Devils blank Rangers
Newark, NJ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Scott Clemmensen made 27 saves to record his first shutout in nearly five years and the third of his career, as the New Jersey Devils defeated the slumping New York Rangers, 3-0, in an Atlantic Divisio

Mizzou edges Kansas on last-second shot >>
Columbia, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Zaire Taylor hit the game-winning jumper with 1.3 seconds left to help 17th-ranked Missouri deal No. 16 Kansas its first conference loss of the season with a 62-60 victory over the Jayhawks. Taylor finis

Boston University wins Beanpot >>
Boston, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Nick Bonino, David Warsofsky and Colin Wilson scored short-handed and Boston University won the 57th annual Beanpot tournament Monday night with a 5-2 triumph over Northeastern. Colby Cohen and Jas

Stepanek avoids upset; moves into second round in San Jose >>
San Jose, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Fourth-seeded Czech Radek Stepanek avoided a huge upset Monday, but rallied to beat German qualifier Dominik Meffert, 5-7, 6-3, 6-1 in the first round at the $600,000 SAP Open, the first American stop on the

Tigers take on Eagles in Chestnut Hill >>
Chestnut Hill, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Two ACC squads trying to get back in the win column hook up at the Conte Forum tonight, as the Boston College Eagles entertain the 12th-ranked Clemson Tigers in Chestnut Hill. The Eagles were in play just

Top-25 foes meet in Big East clash >>
Villanova, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The 13th-ranked Villanova Wildcats will try to continue their run tonight, as they host the 10th-ranked Marquette Golden Eagles in a Big East battle at the Pavilion. The Wildcats have clawed their way back fr

Sportsbook Betting Lines

Who Makes the Sportsbook Betting Lines?

Las Vegas Sports Consultants (LVSC) is the world’s premier oddsmaking company and the most respected authority on making the lines. Mike Seba is a Senior Oddsmaker at LVSC and has been making lines for the last six years. In our extended interview, Seba explained that there are 4-5 oddsmakers assigned to make lines for each of the major sports (pro & college football and basketball; MLB, NHL, boxing, golf). Each of these oddsmakers bring unique opinions, strengths and weaknesses to the process. Oddsmakers at LVSC are professional sports junkies who love what they do and would probably do it for nothing if you asked them, but they do get paid for it. By necessity their approach is very research-oriented and concise, since with millions of dollars at risk there is little margin for error.

“You either have a passion for it or you don’t,” Seba said.

“The #1 thing for us is to make a line for each game that creates good two-way action. We do this by drawing from past experiences and applying them to current situations. People think it’s much more complicated, but it’s not. “

What are the Football Betting Lines Trying to Accomplish?

There is a common misconception that point spreads represent the oddsmakers’ prediction of how many points the favorite will win by. That is not the case at all – their intent is NOT to evenly split the ATS result between the teams; rather, their goal is to attract equal betting action on both sides. Stated another way, they want to create a line that half the people find appealing to bet one way while the other half find it appealing to bet the other way (known as ‘dividing the action’).

Divided action means the sportsbook is guaranteed a profit on the game because of the fee charged to the bettor (called juice or vig – typically $11 bet to win $10).

How the Opening Line Is Made

The opening line is the first line created by the oddsmakers, which is then sent out to sportsbooks. Of course there is an entire method to the madness on how the opening line is created. Seba explained that it all starts with each oddsmaker creating a line on each game based upon their own personal approach. This usually includes having up-to-date power ratings on each team.

Power ratings are the oddsmaker’s value of each team and are used as a guide to calculate a "preliminary" pointspread on an upcoming game. The power ratings are adjusted after each game a team plays. Examples of non-game factors that would require an adjustment to a team's power rating are key player injuries and player trades.

Once a game’s power rating based pointspread is determined, the oddsmaker will make adjustments to that line after considering each team's most recent games played and previous games played against that opponent. Also, adjustments are made after reading each team’s local newspapers to get a sense of what the coaches & players are thinking going into the game.

Since the oddsmaker’s ultimate goal is equally dividing the sports betting action, public perception and sportsbook betting patterns must be taken into account. For example, the public might have heavy betting interest week after week on a popular college football betting team such as USC. If an oddsmaker comes up with a preliminary line of USC -7, then an adjustment up to -7.5 or -8 would be made in response to the public’s expected USC bias.

The last step in the line-making process for each oddsmaker is taking one final look to determine whether or not the line "feels right." This is where common sense and past experience with how games are bet enters into the picture.

A round-table discussion among the 4-5 oddsmakers involved in making the line for each sport is then conducted and a consensus line is decided upon by the Odds Director before it is released to the sportsbooks. Of the 4-5 oddsmakers, generally the 2 most respected opinions are weighed more heavily by the Odds Director before he decides on the final line.

Why Sports Betting Lines Change

Once the opening line is released by LVSC, the individual sportsbooks decide if they want to make any adjustments before offering it to the public. Reasons for such adjustments include:

Experts working for the individual books having a strong opinion on the game

Individual books having players who consistently bet with certain tendencies (such as an extreme bias toward favorites or toward a certain popular team like USC)

The purpose of these adjustments, like all line adjustments, is to more equally divide the betting action.

Once betting begins, sportsbooks can adjust the line at any time. In doing so they attempt to make more attractive the team that is getting less action. By moving the line, sportsbooks can influence how the public bets on a particular game.

For example, if the pointspread on a game is 7 and most of the money is coming in on the underdog (taking the +7), sportsbooks will then move the number down to 6 ½ to try and attract money on the favorite.

Moving the line is the oddsmaker's effort to balance betting action, and often times such moves can have a major impact on a bettor’s decision. Oddsmakers can also change the line depending on various event-related factors such as player injuries or weather. Obviously, if the line comes out a week ahead of the event (which is the case in football), there is much that could happen during the week leading up to the event that could affect the line. Oddsmakers have to determine if any changes are necessary and send out an "adjusted line."

“The main objective is that our clients get equal action on both sides,” Seba said. “We’re not trying to pick the team that covers the spread, we’re trying to make it a coin flip, a tough decision (for the bettor). If we’ve done that, we’ve done our job.”

To visit this internet sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your sports betting needs and World Series odds.