By Daniel Behringer for LVSportsBiz.com
“Back the Knights in the desert,” the headline at Covers read.
The handicapper went on to write how the Vegas Golden Knights have been “quite comfortable at home” as they started another four-game homestead on Wednesday and noted he was on the Knights on the three-way money line.
Fair observation, but aren’t you a little late to the party?
In fact the party had turned into a raucous weeklong kegger with the Knights rattling off six straight wins starting on Feb. 13.
Golden Knights bettors had won at -140, -180, -135, -105, -200 and -165. None of the prices except maybe the -105 vs. the Tampa Bay Lightning were cheap.
But when you’re cashing tickets, who cares?
On Wednesday, the Golden Knights were -220 vs. the Edmonton Oilers, owners of a 33-22 record and 18-12 away. So was “backing the Knights in the desert” the correct play?
We like riding winners. But at -220, the price is getting steep.
On afternoon radio, handicappers at “LV Sportsline” thought the same thing, saying a fair price for the Golden Knights might have been -170. But they also posed the question, “Who wants to get in front of a moving freight train?”
As virtually everyone knows, the VGK beat the Oilers, 3-0, behind Marc-Andre Fleury who made 29 saves to earn his 61st career shutout.
“I feel you’re always more comfortable when you’re winning, right?’ Fleury told The Associated Press.
Right indeed.
Meanwhile at the Thomas & Mack, there was another kind of train in motion called the UNLV Runnin’ Rebels. The local team was a 2.5-point favorite vs. the Boise State Broncos but jumped out to a 34-22 halftime lead.
The Rebels led by as much as 60-33 in the second half before winning 76-66. The total came in just over 141.5, ending a recent pattern of under trends.
“Those first 30 minutes, our defense was suffocating,” UNLV coach T.J. Otzelberger told a local newspaper.
It was the Rebels’ fourth straight win, two as slight favorites, two as underdogs, including the upset of San Diego State as 14-point ‘dogs on Feb. 22.
An estimated 8,000 fans were at the game, a far cry from the 18,000-plus neo-hockeyphiles who regularly jam T-Mobile Arena but a respectable showing.
The ‘train’ keeps rolling
The “freight train” that is the Golden Knights continued barreling down the tracks on Friday.
This time the object on the rails was the Buffalo Sabres. And when the game was over, Reilly Smith had scored twice and newly acquired goalie Robin Lehner had made 32 saves and the Golden Knights had won, 4-2.
It was a franchise record eighth straight win for the local team, and the Golden Knights improved to 12-3-2 under coach Pete DeBoer.
Ironically, while the price zoomed to as high as -300, it actually came down in the few hours before the game, closing at around -240 as some wiseguys and would-be sharps apparently sniffed value in the underdog Sabres.
Regardless, Knights bettors made their conga line return to the window to cash winning tickets.
How about riding the winning streak on the Rebels? There they were again, laying 9.5 point to the lowly San Jose Spartans on Saturday. We’ve seen the Rebels fold in spots like this before. But they bolted to a 44-35 halftime lead and won the second half, too, 48-34, en route to a 92-69 win.
It was their fifth straight win — and cover — heading into the Mountain West conference tournament. Could they be peaking at the right time?
“Our guys have really been focused every day in practice,” Otzelberger said to the local newspaper after the game. “Their energy’s been great, and they’ve played for each other. … I’m really proud as a coach to see our guys continuing to get better at the right time of the year.
For those who wonder about only 8,000 turning out for UNLV game, ESPN reported the crowd at the game at slightly more than 2,000.
A streak ends
There is one thing about winning streaks. Eventually, they come to an end.
The Golden Knights saw their eight-game streak end on Sunday night when the Los Angeles Kings scored twice in the first and second periods and their rookie goalie Calvin Petersen made 42 saves as the Kings beat the VGK, 4-1.
“I don’t know if it was kind of lackadaisical just because we’ve been winning, but we can’t think like that,” Vegas forward Paul Stastny said to The AP.
The Knights were a prohibitive -320 favorite by game time, and bargain hunters who played the Kings at +260 (or found an even more lucrative reverse puck line) were justly rewarded.
What’s next
The Golden Knights embark on a six-game road swing and face the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday.
UNLV, the No. 4 seed in the quarterfinals of the Mountain West tournament, hosts Boise State at 2 p.m. Thursday.
UFC 248 is on tap for Saturday at T-Mobile Arena. In the main event, middleweight Israel Adesanya will defend his title against Yoel Romero.