Monday Morning Gambler: Vegas Golden Knights Bettors Find (duh) That All Winning Streaks Must End
By Dan Behringer for LVSportsBiz.com
The Vegas Golden Knights were hot.
Sizzling hot.
And streaking.
They had won a franchise record 10 straight games when they showed up at the Gila River Arena on Friday to play the Phoenix Coyotes. A few hours of hockey later before “limited in-person attendance,” the streak was over as the Coyotes blanked the Knights, 3-0. It was the VGK’s third shutout loss of the season.
And bettors backing the Knights at about -215 had to rip up their tickets or turn them into scrap paper.
“We’ve won 10 of our last 11 games,” captain Mark Stone told reporters after the game. “I joked with the guys, we’re not the Harlem Globetrotters. You can’t win them all.”
But what a ride it was. It began way back on April 9 when the Knights erupted in offensive fireworks and beat the very same Coyotes, 7-4. It continued with a 1-0 win over the Coyotes the next day, then followed with victories over the Kings, the Ducks, the Sharks and the Avalanche, all victims of the streaking Knights. Along the way, bettors willing to lay the lumber at prices from -145 to as high as -280 were cashing tickets with monotonous regularity. For sports bettors, that’s a very good thing.
I joked with the guys, we’re not the Harlem Globetrotters. You can’t win them all — Golden Knights Captain Mark Stone
After the loss on Friday, the Knights were back in the win column the following evening. They beat the Coyotes, 3-2, in overtime.
Next up for the West Division leading Knights is a two-game road series at the Minnesota Wild. Vegas Insider has the Knights at -125 with the total of 5.5 for Monday’s match at the Xcel Energy Center.
Elsewhere:
— Jiri Prochazka defeated Dominick Reyes by KO/TKO in Round 2 of their light heavyweight main event at Fight Night in Las Vegas on Saturday night. Bettors on Prochazka generally laid about -130 to cash a ticket.
UFC 262, billed as the Lone Star Showdown, will see a lightweight championship match between Charles Oliveira (30-8-0) and Michael Chandler (22-5-0) on May 15. Oliveira is currently around -140 and Chandler +115 for the bout at the Toyota Center in Houston where larger crowds are permitted.
— After a dismal start in Major League Baseball, the New York Yankees have turned things around. The Yankees swept the Detroit Tigers in three games, ending with a 2-0 win on Sunday. The Yankees are now among several American League teams 7-3 over the last 10 games. The Detroit Tigers are 1-9.
In the National League, the St. Louis Cardinals are 7-3 over the last 10 games. However, the Los Angeles Dodgers, owners of the fattest payroll in the game, are an unremarkable 3-7 even after a 16-4 shellacking of the Milwaukee Brewers on Sunday.
If you’re saving losing tickets as scrap paper, tickets on the Dodgers have been in abundant supply.
“It’s tough. It’s frustrating, and it seems awful,” Dodgers outfielder A.J. Pollock told a blogger prior to Sunday’s rout. “But it’s like, in baseball, you play 162. Sometimes you go through little stuff like this, as an offense.”
— The Brooklyn Nets are about +230 to win the the NBA Finals. The defending champion Los Angeles Lakers are +350, the Los Angeles Clippers +550 and the Utah Jazz +800.
The NBA playoffs begin May 22 and go on forever. (OK, actually they will conclude two months later on July 22, nine days after Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game.)
— If you cashed a ticket on Medina Spirit at about 12-1 in Saturday’s Kentucky Derby, you might be wondering about the next major horse race.
Trainer Bob Baffert told the Louisville Courier-Journal that he wouldn’t commit to running Medina Spirit in the May 15 Preakness in Baltimore, but added, “Right now, I don’t see anything that would discourage me.”
