Habs return home to face Lightning

Hockey Betting Lines

03/09/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Having just completed a successful road trip, the Montreal Canadiens will play for the first time at the Bell Centre in nearly a month when the playoff hopefuls host the Tampa Bay Lightning this evening.

Montreal began its post-Olympic break schedule with a four-game trek and went 3-1-0 during the swing, with the lone loss coming to Western Conference front- runner San Jose last Thursday. That surge has moved the Canadiens into seventh place in the Eastern Conference standings, one point better than rival Boston and two back of sixth-seeded Philadelphia.

The Habs concluded the trip with a 4-3 come-from-behind victory at Anaheim on Sunday, with Tomas Plekanec netting the game-winning goal in the fourth round of the shootout.

Montreal trailed 3-1 entering the third period before drawing even on goals by Brian Gionta and Andrei Markov, the latter coming with only 11 seconds remaining in regulation. The Canadiens also had their backs to the wall in the shootout, with Gionta keeping the team alive with a controversial score in the third round.

With Montreal down 1-0 in the deciding phase, Gionta fired a wrist shot in between the blocker pad and stick of Jonas Hiller. The Anaheim netminder drifted backward toward the net and looked to find the puck, inadvertently knocking it into the net for a goal.

The officials held up the goal upon review and after James Wisniewski could not score for the Ducks in the fourth round, Plekanec fired a wrister past Hiller's glove for the clincher.

"I thought Hiller had it," said Ducks defenseman Scott Niedermayer of Gionta's tally. "Then once he goes to relax and thinks the play is over, it drops out."

Montreal will be hoping for some more good fortune as it takes the Bell Centre ice for the first time since a 6-2 loss to Philadelphia on February 13. The Canadiens begin a three-game homestand and will also face Edmonton and Boston on the residency.

Tampa Bay currently sits four points out of a playoff spot and in 11th place in the East, but was able to put an untimely five-game skid to an end with Saturday's 6-2 rout of visiting Atlanta. Steven Stamkos led the way with a pair of goals and an assist to keep his franchise-record point streak intact, while Martin St. Louis scored once and notched a pair of helpers in the much- needed win.

Stamkos' second goal was his 40th of the season, which trails only superstars Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby for tops in the NHL, and the 2008 No. 1 overall draft choice has racked up 29 points (15 goals, 14 assists) over a 16- game tear. Steve Downie, who assisted on Stamkos' first marker of the night, has a point in 10 straight contests and has amassed five goals and eight assists during that span.

Teddy Purcell, acquired by Tampa from Los Angeles at Wednesday's trade deadline, added a goal and an assist in his second game as a member of the Lightning. Goaltender Antero Niittymaki came through with 29 saves to improve to 17-0-0 lifetime against Atlanta.

"I thought it was a good team win out there," said Stamkos. "Nitty was great back there, the defense did a good job of moving the puck up and our forwards were tenacious."

Niittymaki was also sharp in Tampa Bay's most recent encounter with the Canadiens, stopping all 33 shots he faced in a 3-0 triumph at the St. Pete Times Forum on January 27. The Lightning also downed the Habs by a 3-1 count in Montreal back on November 7, giving the team a 2-0-1 record in its last three visits to the Bell Centre.

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Pacific-10 Conference odds

Teams that should be in: Stanford

Oregon and USC get their tickets punched after taking care of business this weekend. Yes, the Trojans' computer numbers aren't great, but there's no way the third-place team in this league is getting nixed. Grudgingly, I added Arizona after consultation with our Bracketologist. I don't know that Arizona will lose its last three (including a Pac-10 quarterfinal game), and even if the Cats do, I still can't see how they'd be left out, given the overall profile. That said, it bears watching, as three more L's would leave them at 18-12 (9-9) and on a 6-11 skid entering the Dance. It would be nice to see the Wildcats get at least one W in the Bay Area next week, as Cincinnati (albeit without Armein Kirkland and with a worse profile) was axed after a similar slide last season. I just couldn't rationalize having some of the other teams as locks and not having Arizona in that category -- there just aren't enough good teams behind the Cats to threaten their spot, it seems. Stanford has its fate in its own hands with the Arizona schools coming to the Farm to close out the regular season next weekend.

Should be in:

Stanford [17-10 (9-7), RPI: 40, SOS: 21] No shame in not getting a win in L.A., but that makes the home game against Arizona State a must-win ahead of what could be an intriguing meeting with Arizona should the Cats lose at Cal. Getting to 11 Pac-10 wins would make Selection Sunday much more comfortable, but 10's probably more than enough this season. The Cardinal have nonconference wins over Texas Tech and at Virginia to lean on, although they also lost badly to Air Force and Santa Clara at home.

Southeastern Conference odds
Work left to do: Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Mississippi State

It looks more and more possible that no one from the SEC West will make the NCAAs. How weird is that? Tennessee and Vandy move into the locks category after more good work this weekend. Kentucky stays there, although it would be smart for the Cats to handle Georgia at home Wednesday ahead of a trip to the Swamp. Could a disaster scenario (two more L's and a first-round SEC tourney exit) somehow dislodge the Cats despite their incredible computer numbers? Still unlikely, but not worth chancing it.

Work left to do:

Alabama [19-9 (6-8), RPI: 43, SOS: 47] The tough L at Tennessee was understandable, and even created some hope. Unfortunately, that hope was dashed by a home loss to Auburn, which leaves the Tide in some real trouble. There's still no signature win on the profile (no, Kentucky doesn't count), and the computer profile is weakening rapidly. The Tide conceivably could beat Ole Miss and win at Miss. State to get to 8-8 and clinch at least a share of the West crown, but that's probably not enough right now. The Tide will need to do some work in the SEC tourney.

Georgia [16-10 (8-6), RPI: 52, SOS: 23] This is the team with the best chance to make it from this section right now. The Bulldogs rebounded from a terrible performance at Ole Miss to beat down Miss. State. Now they are at Kentucky (king of the RPI 51-100 win) and home to Tennessee. That would be worth a lot of computer points to get both (which is doable), as both teams are in the top 11 in RPI. Finishing at least 9-7 is an absolute must, and I would feel much better about the Dawgs' chances if they got both to get to 10 SEC wins. They also beat Gonzaga, but lost to ACC bubblers Georgia Tech and Clemson.

Mississippi [18-10 (7-7), RPI: 63, SOS: 79] Like everyone else in this division, Ole Miss gacked up a chance to stake a claim, losing by double figures at South Carolina. Even 9-7 likely is not nearly enough with a nonconference profile devoid of anything notable.

Mississippi State [16-11 (7-7), RPI: 66, SOS: 37] With a chance to get in the mix, these Bulldogs were leashed by their Georgia counterparts. Could they get to 9-7? I guess -- although winning at Arkansas, then beating Alabama is no lock -- but would that mean all that much for a team with this overall profile? Probably not. There's nothing of note (on the good side) in the nonconference profile.

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What Is the Point Spread?

What are Sports Betting Point Spreads?

In any football or basketball game (the main sports that use point spreads) there are two teams playing against each other.

Those teams, though, are rarely exactly evenly matched – meaning that typically one team has a better chance than the other to win the game. If bettors were allowed to bet on who was simply going to win the game, smart ones would obviously bet on the better team (likely winning more than 50% of the time in the process).

If winning were that easy the Las Vegas and online sportsbooks would stop taking any bets! This is where the point spread comes in: the basic function of the point spread is to balance the likelihood of each team “winning” by adjusting the final score by the point spread. After this adjustment is made you get the Against The Spread result (ATS result for short).

Let’s look at Super Bowl XXXIX, New England Patriots vs. Philadelphia Eagles. Most people believed the defending champ Patriots to be the better team – so if betting were simply based upon which team would win the game, an uneven majority of people would have wagered on New England. But, by using the point spread, the bookmakers adjusted the terms of the bet, evening the proposition so about half the people believed the Pats to be the smart bet, while the other half considered Philly to be the smart bet.

How to Read Point Spreads

New England Patriots -7 vs. Philadelphia Eagles

The better team, called the Favorite, is expected to win the game and must “give” or “lay” points to the weaker team. The favorite is listed with a minus sign and the number of points they are favored by (e.g., New England -7)

In the case of our example, New England must not only win the game, but they must win by more than 7 points for Pats bettors to have a winning ATS result. An Eagles bettor wins his bet either if:

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