Sedin leads Canucks past Ducks in OT

Hockey Betting Lines

02/21/2007 - Anaheim, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Daniel Sedin scored 2:19 into overtime, as the Vancouver Canucks won their fifth straight game with a 3-2 decision over the Anaheim Ducks at the Honda Center.

Kevin Bieksa and Markus Naslund also scored for Vancouver, which now holds a three-point lead atop the Northwest Division over Minnesota. Dany Sabourin was very strong and allowed just two goals on 40 shots for the Canucks, who will stay in town and continue their four-game road trip against the Kings on Thursday.

"It was a good character win for us," said Naslund. "We struggled against them in the first two games this season, and we wanted to play a strong game. It was a good win."

Tim Brent and Chris Kunitz scored for the Pacific Division-leading Ducks, who have earned a point in each of their last four games (2-0-2). Jean-Sebastien Giguere made 28 saves in the losing effort.

With the score tied 2-2 in overtime, a questionable hooking penalty was called on Anaheim's Scott Niedermayer and the Canucks used the extra skater to win it. The visitors gained the blue line and set up in the offensive zone before a blazing slap shot from the point by Sami Salo sailed five feet over the net. However, the puck deflected sharply off the rear glass and caromed directly onto the stick of Sedin, who batted the bouncing puck into the cage from the right post.

"Sometimes the bounces don't go your way, but I think we battled pretty hard tonight," said Giguere. "You have to look at the positive side - we got one point."

With the win, Vancouver halted a five-game skid against the Ducks.

Brent's first career goal gave the Ducks a 1-0 lead at the 6:51 mark of the opening period. Anaheim cycled the puck to maintain control in its offensive zone before a stuffer attempt at the left post by Dustin Penner. Sabourin made the save, but the puck sat along the goal line and Brent punched it home.

Although he gave the Ducks the lead, Brent's holding penalty in the second period led to a 1-1 tie. Vancouver skated 5-on-4 and Sedin carried the puck over the blue line along the right side. Sedin stopped high along the half- wall, spun around and passed into the high slot for Bieska, whose wrist shot bounced off Giguere and trickled over the goal line at 7:05.

Late in the second period, a cross-checking penalty called on Brendan Morrison allowed the Ducks to skate with the man advantage and they cashed in with 6.2 seconds to play. A centering pass by Kunitz from the left side deflected off the stick of Vancouver blueliner Willie Mitchell and caromed into the net. Kunitz was given credit for the goal, his 21st of the season.

Naslund's 20th goal 4:06 into the third knotted the contest.

Game Notes

The Canucks are now 16-12-2 on the road this season...The Ducks dominated in the faceoff circle, 33-22 (60 percent)...Sabourin made 16 saves in the second period...The visitors ended 2-for-4 on the power play, while Anaheim was 1- for-4 with the extra skater...Attendance was 17,467.

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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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