Capitals' Theodore shuts out Panthers

Hockey Betting Lines

03/17/2009 - Sunrise, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jose Theodore was spectacular between the pipes, stopping 19-of-19 shots, as the Washington Capitals shut out the Florida Panthers, 3-0, at BankAtlantic Center.

Theodore improved to 28-15-4 on the year and collected his second shutout of the season. Brooks Laich, Viktor Kozlov, and Mike Green scored for the Capitals, who bounced back from a 5-1 loss to Atlanta on Monday. John Erskine tallied two helpers for Washington.

Washington defenseman Green returned to the lineup after missing Monday's game with flu-like symptoms. Green leads all NHL blueliners with 25 goals.

Alex Ovechkin failed in his second chance to become the first Capitals player to ever notch three separate 50-goal seasons.

Tomas Vokoun stopped 22 shots in defeat for the Panthers, who have lost four straight and five of their last six games. Florida hadn't dropped four in a row since doing so from December 26-31.

Defenseman Bryan McCabe returned to the lineup for the Panthers after missing the last three games due to facial surgery required after he was hit with a puck versus St. Louis on March 7.

After a scoreless first period, Florida gained the first power play of the contest at the 4:22 mark of the second frame. But it was the Capitals that ended up scoring during the Panthers' man advantage.

Laich notched a short-handed goal at the 5:46 mark, firing a wrister from the left circle that deflected off the inside of the right post and into the net for his 18th of the year.

Florida had two more power plays in the second stanza, but failed to capitalize on either. The Panthers fired a total of five shots on goal during their three man-advantage opportunities. Florida also outshot Washington 11-6 in the period, but headed to the third period down 1-0.

After the Panthers killed off an early power play in the third, Kozlov lit the lamp for Washington to give the visitors a 2-0 lead with 17:24 remaining. Kozlov maneuvered with the puck from the left point to the left circle before snapping a wrist shot past the stick-side of Vokoun.

Green scored an empty-net goal with 1:27 remaining to ruin any hopes of a comeback for Florida.

Game Notes

Florida went 0-for-4 on the power play, while Washington was 0-for-1 with the man advantage...The Capitals are 3-2 against the Panthers this season. The club has also won in three straight and four of its last five visits to BankAtlantic Center...The Capitals improved to 18-13-4 on the road.

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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.”

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