Leighton, Flyers shut down Habs again, take 2-0 series lead

Hockey Betting Lines

05/18/2010 - Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Michael Leighton stopped all 30 shots he faced, as the streaking Philadelphia Flyers stonewalled Montreal, 3-0, in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals at Wachovia Center.

Coming off his first career playoff shutout in the series opener, Leighton is 4-0 in his four postseason starts, allowing just four goals in those outings, since replacing an injured Brian Boucher during Game 5 against Boston.

Leighton will take a shutout streak of 165 minutes, 50 seconds into Game 3 on Thursday, when the series shifts to the Bell Centre in Montreal.

Danny Briere and Simon Gagne scored power-play goals for the seventh-seeded Flyers, who used a punishing forecheck to suppress the smaller Canadiens and come away with a resounding 6-0 win Sunday.

Ville Leino registered an even-strength goal and one assist for his third consecutive multi-point game.

Philadelphia has ripped off six straight wins since falling behind three games to none in its previous series with the Bruins, and is now remarkably two wins away from its first appearance in the Stanley Cup Finals in 13 years.

History says a 2-0 start is a huge asset for Philadelphia. The Flyers are 16-0 all-time when winning the first two games of a postseason series.

Jaroslav Halak, yanked midway through the second period after allowing four goals on 14 shots in Game 1, made 20 saves for the eighth-seeded Canadiens, who have lost six straight playoff games to Philadelphia.

Montreal had not been blanked in successive playoff games since Bob Sauve of Buffalo did so in Games 1 and 2 of the 1983 Adams Division semifinals.

Briere staked the Flyers to a 1-0 lead with his team-leading ninth goal of the playoffs. On an abbreviated power play, Briere gathered a Claude Giroux pass and snapped a wrister from the outer edge of the right circle that deflected in off Halak's glove at 4:16 of the first period.

Leighton was up to the task in the opening 20 minutes, turning aside all 16 shots fired his way. He came up big at the tail end of a Montreal power play midway through the frame, making three successive stops on Andrei Kostitsyn and a pair of follow-up chances by Michael Cammalleri from in tight.

Gagne gave the Flyers a two-goal cushion at 15:49 of the second. Philadelphia captain Mike Richards centered the puck from behind the Montreal net to Leino, whose backhander was denied by Halak. Gagne crashed the crease and swatted the rebound past the fallen goaltender.

Philadelphia led 3-0 when Halak whiffed with the glove hand on a long shot from a sharp angle along the outer edge of the left circle by Leino at 10:24 of the third.

After seeing the opposition put 26 shots on net in the first two periods, the Flyers erected a defensive wall around Leighton in the third. Montreal mustered just four shots on net -- none of which were quality chances.

Game Notes

Leighton is the second Flyers goaltender to post back-to-back playoff shutouts, joining Bernie Parent (April 15-17, 1975, against Toronto)...Briere has a goal in each of the last four games and nine points (5g, 4a) during a six-game point streak...Gagne has a goal in three straight games and seven points (6g, 1a) in six games since returning from a broken toe...The Flyers are 6-1 as the host in this year's playoffs...Philadelphia had lost its last four Game 2s...This series marks the first matchup between the two lowest seeds since the current playoff format was adopted in 1994...Montreal right- winger Brian Gionta had a game-high eight shots.

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MySportsbook.com favors Bears, Bengals, Chargers and Colts to remain perfect

LAS VEGAS , Sept. 28 - Two big match-ups of undefeated teams have fans salivating at the Week Four schedule in the NFL. The Chicago Bears stifling defense looks to provide a less than hospitable welcome to the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday night in a battle of two 3-0 teams in the NFC conference. In the AFC, the San Diego Chargers (2-0) head to Maryland to face the surprising Baltimore Ravens (3-0) as both try to keep pace atop the conference standings. Betting Lines makers at MySportsbook.com, online sportsbook and casino, have set the Bears as 3.5 point favorites while the Chargers are a 2.5 point bet.

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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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