Monday Morning Gambler: Turn Out The Knights, The Party’s Finally Over
By Dan Behringer for LVSportsBiz.com
It ain’t over until the fat lady tears up your betting tickets.
So for Golden Knights bettors, it’s now officially over. The end came at the Bell Centre in Montreal late Thursday when the Canadiens scored in overtime to defeat the Golden Knights, 3-2.
That gave the NHL Final 4 Semifinals to the Canadiens in six games — an outcome that few saw coming. Of the 15 writers and editors at NHL.com, only one predicted a series win for the Canadiens.
Bettors generally could find around +400 on Montreal before the start of the series though that number shifted as Montreal tied it with a win in the second game, then took a 3-2 lead. But even in Game 6, the Habs were getting little respect. They were as much as +125 home dogs before sharps whittled that number down to +117.
“Pretty terrible feeling,” said Golden Knights captain Mark Stone, who finished with no points in the series. “I’m the captain of this team, the leader of this team and take a lot of responsibility for what just occurred.”
‘Nuff said.
Elsewhere:
— The Las Vegas Aces needed a strong fourth-quarter performance Sunday to send their game with the Seattle Storm into overtime. The Aces finally won, 95-92, on a go-ahead jumper from Chelsea Gray with 10.6 seconds left and rewarded bettors who were laying 2.5 points on the Las Vegas team. Over bettors were equally fortuitous — the 19 points in overtime sent the total over 168.5. The Aces won the regular season series, 2-1, but the Storm have a half-game lead in the standings.
The Aces are next at the Los Angeles Sparks on Wednesday.
— Zigging and zagging: If you played the Los Angeles Clippers in Game 3 on Thursday on the well-known Zigzag Theory, you had an easy winner. The Clippers, returning home to the Staples Center and down 0-2 in the series, were +1.5. They trailed at halftime, but won it, 106-92. But that was not the case in Game 4 on Saturday. The Suns won that low-scoring affair, 84-80. Only 29 points were scored in the fourth quarter. The Suns are -5.5 with the total at 215 for Game 5 on Monday.
— Who’s hot, who’s not: If you’ve been riding the San Diego Padres, you’ve been cashing a slew of tickets. The Padres are 9-1 over the last 10 games. Three teams, including the Arizona Diamondbacks, Baltimore Orioles, and the St. Louis Cardinals, are 2-8 over their last 10 games. The Houston Astros, who are 8-2 over their last 10, face the Orioles on Monday and are a -300 favorite.
— Laugher of the week: The Tampa Bay Lightning fired up its offense in Game 5 last Monday and defeated the Islanders, 8-0. The Lightning were -185 on the money line and around +160 on the puck line. If you found a prop at -2.5 or -3.5 goals, even better. Later in the week, the Lightning closed out the Islanders, 1-0, in Game 7 to advance to the Stanley Cup Final. Game 1 is Monday with the Canadiens in their now-familiar underdog role: Tampa Bay is -200.
