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Vrbata owns 14 goals in his last 22 games after scoring only once in his first nine contests.
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The fist-place Minnesota Wild will try to avoid their first three-game losing streak of the season when they host the lowly New York Islanders for this evening's clash at Xcel Energy Center. The Wild, who are leading the Northwest Division and are tied for the top spot in the Western Conference with 44 points, dropped consecutive games on back- to-back nights this week.
Matt Cullen, Mikko Koivu and Kyle Brodziak all had goals for the Wild, who haven't dropped three in a row since April 2-7 of last season.
Niklas Backstrom stopped 28 shots in the loss, while Koivu suffered a leg injury and will miss tonight's game. Koivu -- Minnesota's captain -- has recorded a point in six straight games and is leading the Wild with 28 points on the year. Wild forward Casey Wellman is questionable for tonight after sitting out Wednesday's game with an injured wrist.
The Wild are 10-4-2 as the host this year and are capping a brief two-game homestand tonight.
New York's most recent setback came Thursday against visiting Dallas, as Brenden Morrow and Jamie Benn scored early in the third period to help lift the Stars to a 3-2 decision at Nassau Coliseum.
New York goaltenders Rick DiPietro and Evgeni Nabokov are currently battling groin injuries so either Poulin or Al Montoya is expected to get the call in net tonight.
New York posted a 2-1 home win over the Wild on Oct. 10 and has won two straight in this series after losing the previous five encounters. Minnesota has won three straight and five of the six all-time meetings in St. Paul.
St. Louis and the Preds met once earlier this season on Oct. 8, when Nashville notched a 4-2 road victory to end a three-game slide in the series. The Blues have won the last two encounters in Tennessee.
St. Louis earned its most recent victory Thursday against the New York Rangers, as Alexander Steen had a goal and an assist to help lift the Blues to a 4-1 decision.
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.
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:
There was also the possibility that the final score could land exactly on the spread number (for example, the Pats winning 28-21 when -7), which is called a “push” or “no action” and a refund is then issued to bettors of both teams.
The same game with the same point spread can be considered from the weaker team’s perspective: The Underdog (Philly in the case of our example) is not expected to win the game and online football betting thus receives or “gets” points given by the stronger team. When a game is stated from the underdog’s perspective the team is listed with a plus sign and the number of points they are underdogs by:
Philadelphia Eagles +7 vs. New England Patriots
Keep in mind that Philadelphia +7 and New England -7 is the same point spread on the same game, simply stated differently. The first is from the underdog’s perspective; the later is from the favorite’s.
Not a must, but for some a mathematical approach is insightful. You can determine the ATS winner by either:
Let’s look at the actual result of Super Bowl XXXIX: New England 24 Philadelphia 21
The favorite, New England, won the game but not by more than the point spread they were favored by (7), so the ATS result was a LOSS for Pats bettors.
Looking at it from the underdog’s perspective, Philly did not win the game, but they lost by less than the point spread (7), so the ATS result was a WIN for Eagle bettors.
Mathematically considered, 24 for the favorite Pats minus 7 equals 17, which is less than the 20 the Eagles scored, so the underdog Eagles win the ATS result (or you could figure 20 plus 7 equals 27 for the Eagles, which is more than 24 for the Pats).
Emily’s boyfriend understood the point spread and wagered $100 on the Eagles at +7. The Eagles may not have gotten a Super Bowl ring, but since they won the ATS result Emily’s boyfriend cashed his bet – giving him money to take her out to a nice dinner.
And now hopefully you understand how to read point spreads, putting you one step closer to joining the fun of sports betting.
To visit this internet sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting and World Series odds.
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