By Dan Behringer for LVSportsBiz.com
Sweet.
That’s the way bettors must have felt after betting on the Vegas Golden Knights at a lucrative +150 vs. the Calgary Flames on Thursday. Cast in the rare underdog role, the VGK responded dramatically with a 6-1 rout of the Flames. The victory pulled the VGK within one point of a playoff position at that point. Calgary native Logan Thompson, who was in the net for the Golden Boys, had 35 saves.
Of course, that set the stage for Saturday’s road game at the Edmonton Oilers. Once again, the Vegas Golden Knights were the road ‘dog, this time in the +105 to +110 range. Would you have rolled over a winning ticket from the Flames game on the Golden Knights?
Better hope not. The Oilers dropped the Golden Knights, 4-0, and returned the Las Vegas team to playoff purgatory.
Not so sweet.
Coach Peter DeBoer after the game to reporters: “We knew we weren’t going to run the table. We talked about that two weeks ago. We were going to drop some points along the way. We’re still right in the thick of things.”
With only six games remaining and the VGK battling for a playoff berth, they return home for a game on Monday with the New Jersey Devils. They are roughly -330 for that game with the total at 6.
If you’re still upbeat on future prospects, the VGK are generally around +3000 to win the Stanley Cup after opening the season at around +600, according to Covers.com. The Colorado Avalanche are the favorites at around +360.
Elsewhere:
— No Betting Allowed? With the NBA playoffs underway, there’s plenty of opinions and speculating from bettors and handicappers. We noted one perhaps predictable result from weekend conference quarterfinals games: The Golden State Warriors dropped the Denver Nuggets, 123-104 and covered -6.5. The total went over, and they also covered the first-half line at -3.5. If you parlayed Curry & Co. with the over for Game 1, good job.
— Aces Up: The Las Vegas Aces open on the road vs. the Phoenix Mercury on May 6. They will likely be a short favorite in that match-up.
If you like the Mark Davis-owned Las Vegas team to win the WNBA championship, you can generally find them at about +115 to win it all.
— PGA numbers: Jon Rahm and Scottie Scheffler are both generally around +1200 to win the PGA Championship. Rory McIlroy and Justin Thomas are at +1400 along with Las Vegan Collin Morikawa.
Is there value in Morikawa? Now the ripe old age of 25, he won the 2020 PGA Championship at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco.
The PGA Championship is May 19-22 at Southern Hills in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
— Major League Baseball leaders. The Major League Baseball season is still young, but familiar teams are posting impressive stats. At TeamRankings.com, the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants head the majors with 7-2 records and +1.5 and +1.4 run differentials, respectively. The New York Mets are next percentagewise at 7-3 with a +2 run differential. At the bottom are the Cincinnati Reds. After being swept by the Dodgers, the Reds are 2-8 with a -1.2 run differential. The Oakland (soon to be Las Vegas?) A’s are 5-5 but have an impressive +2.5 run differential.
— Laugher of the week: If you had the St. Louis Blues-Nashville Predators total over 6.5 in the NHL on Sunday, you were able to enjoy one of the laughers of the week. The Blues lit the lamp seven — count ’em, seven — times in the second period on their way to an 8-3 rout of the Predators. You can mention that to Scott Van Pelt the next he wants to tell “bad beat” stories on “SportsCenter.”