By Daniel Behringer of LVSportsBiz.com
And a tough game for sports bettors to handicap.
That was the Golden Knights at the Tamp Bay Lightning on Tuesday.
The Lightning were arguably the better team, but oddsmakers priced them as high as -170. The Golden Knights, riding a two-game winning streak, could have been seen as competitive in the game. But +150 wasn’t enough to tempt us. If the perfect line tempts both sides, the imperfect line is of little interest to either side.
Regardless, we passed on the game and watched with modest interest as the Lightning defeated the Golden Knights, 4-2. It was just the second time the VGK lost in regulation in six games under new head coach Peter DeBoer, The AP noted.
“You come in here and you’ve got to do everything right,’’ DeBoer the wire service after the game. “You’ve got to win the special teams, you’ve got to be opportunistic, you’ve got to work hard and try to limit them.”
Rather than speculate on a hockey game, we rode a consensus play on Kent State -3.5 vs. Ball State. Everything we studied made it look like a solid play. Unfortunately, the Golden Flashes didn’t do the same research. They were upset at home by the Cardinals, 62-54.
The UNLV Runnin’ Rebels had an equally tough game a day later at the Utah State Aggies. The Aggies were 11-point favorites, but the Rebels were highly competitive in the first half. In fact, after 20 minutes, UNLV led, 29-27.
But Utah State took control in the second 20 minutes, winning the second half, 42-25. That gave them a relatively easy 69-54 victory — and the cover. The final score never seriously threatened the total of 142.
“We came out and got out to the lead we needed to start the second half,” UNLV coach T.J. Otzelberger told a local newspaper. “I loved our energy there. The game settled in and kind of got away from us.”
No kidding.
It was the Rebels’ fourth straight defeat.
But if you were waiting for the Vegas Golden Knights to unleash their offense, you only had to wait until Thursday when they invaded Sunrise, Florida, to play the Florida Panthers.
This looked like a good game for the VGK to rebound and we were briefly — but only briefly — tempted by the -130 price.
The Golden Knights scored once in the first period. Then twice in the second period. And finally, for good measure, four times in the third period to rout the Panthers, 7-2. Golden Knights/over 6.5 was the ticket to be holding and if had it, you can buy lunch next time we see you hanging around the race and sportsbook. One of those overstuffed Reuben sandwiches will be just fine, thank you.
“He’s a good player every night, but that was another level tonight,” DeBoer said of Mark Stone, who scored twice and three assists. “Not just offensively, but defensively, too. I thought he was great.”
Added a casual observer with one eye on the game: “Maybe firing the coach (Gerard Gallant, dismissed on Jan. 15) was a good idea.”
While we passed on the hockey game, we did have a modest investment on Southern California vs. Arizona in college hoops, thinking that +10 was a very generous spot for the Trojans. Trailing 43-33 at the half, we didn’t like our chances. But Southern California won the second half, 47-42, to give us a relatively easy cover in an 85-80 outcome.
Both the Golden Knights and the Runnin’ Rebels were on the board Saturday.
It looked like an ideal spot for the VGK, at home in the friendly confines of T-Mobile Arena vs. the Carolina Hurricanes, a team they had recently defeated on the road.
Oddsmakers agreed and made the Golden Knights -150 with the total at 6. The Knights jumped out to a 2-1 lead in the first period and extended it to 3-1 in the second period. But the Hurricanes scored four times in a wild third period to tie the game at five, then scored in a shootout to disappoint the home crowd of 18,417 and win, 6-5.
“Strange game,” DeBoer, who lost his home debut, said to The AP after the game. “I was worried a little bit about the game coming off the road. I thought we really started well, I liked our first period. … I thought the second and third we didn’t manage the game well.”
Tell that to the bettors tearing up their Golden Knights tickets.
UNLV bettors fared no better. The Runnin’ Rebels eked out a 68-67 victory on a jumper from Marvin Coleman with 0.08 seconds left but failed to cover -4.5. The total came in under 138.
“I’m trying to think of how I can say this,” said Otzelberger, who may have drawn a technical foul to fire up players and fans, to a local newspaper after the game. “Let’s just go with yes, it was an opportunity to get the crowd into the game and to let our players know I had their back.”
The win left the local team at 12-13 and 7-5 in conference play. In their last five games, they are 1-4 ATS. In the last 10 game, over has been 7-3.
We were out and about briefly on Saturday, and the premiere of the “reborn” XFL was on several monitors at a Strip casino. But there were no huge crowds in the race and sportsbook nor deafening waves of sound after a score or big play.
A tout at Vegas Insider made the Dallas Renegades at -8.5 his play of the day on Sunday vs. the St. Louis BattleHawks. Another writer at Covers had the same prediction, noting the line had gone as high as -10. A writer at the Action Network further noted, “the BattleHawks will have a hard time scoring enough points to win as nearly double-digit road underdogs.”
We tuned into ESPN during the waning minutes on Sunday to see how their predictions fared. It ended with the BattleHawks winning outright, 15-9, with the total well under 52.5.
We will further investigate the availability of $1 hotdogs during XFL games.
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What’s next?
— The Vegas Golden Knights will be favored again vs. the Minnesota Wild at home on Tuesday.
— The Runnin’ Rebels will be at home against archrival UNR on Wednesday.
— If you’ve felt a warm breeze and are starting to think baseball, the season and home opener of the Las Vegas Aviators is April 9 at the Las Vegas Ballpark in Downtown Summerlin. The Aviators will be favorites vs. the Albuquerque Isotopes.