Bolts host Panthers in home-and-home finale

Hockey Betting Lines

12/27/2008 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Tampa Bay Lightning will shoot for a home-and-home sweep as well as their third consecutive victory overall when they welcome the Florida Panthers for a battle at St. Pete Times Forum.

The Lightning edged Florida in a shootout on Friday night in Sunrise to kick off the home-and-home set. It was the second straight win for Tampa Bay, which also earned a victory Tuesday in Pittsburgh.

Tampa had won back-to-back games on just one other occasion this season, when it picked up three straight victories from October 28 to November 1. The Bolts had lost three in a row and 12 of 13 games before winning their last two tilts.

Ryan Malone notched the game-winner in the fourth round of the shootout as Tampa Bay blew a two-goal lead but topped Florida, 4-3, at BankAtlantic Center on Friday.

After Lightning goalie Mike Smith foiled Stephen Weiss to open the fourth round, Malone stuck a forehander to the stick side on Florida netminder Craig Anderson.

Steve Eminger netted a goal and two assists for the Lightning. Mark Recchi and Evgeni Artyukhin also tallied while Smith came up with 25 saves.

Keith Ballard, Cory Stillman and Bryan McCabe scored for the Panthers, who have dropped three of five, but were coming off consecutive shutout victories.

Starter Tomas Vokoun allowed three goals on 27 shots through two periods. Anderson stopped all eight shots he faced in the third period and overtime. Vokoun had notched the back-to-back shutouts for Florida before getting solved by the Lightning early in Friday's game.

Florida is 2-0-1 against the Lightning this year, winning a 4-0 home decision on November 12 before posting a shootout victory in Tampa less than a week later. Despite Friday's loss the Panthers have taken four of six in the series and have won two of three in Tampa.

The Lightning are just 3-6-6 as the host team this year, while Florida is 8-9-2 on the road.

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Betting the NFL preseason

Rule No. 1 in the gamblers' handbook states, "Avoid sports betting on meaningless games."

When you're drowning in a sea of baseball monotony, however, things change. Even a hint of pro football betting can persuade the most disciplined bettor to break a few rules. 

The NFL preseason is around the corner, with a tempting Hall of Fame match kicking off on Sunday. But bettors must stay vigilant. Wagering on NFL exhibition games is an entirely different beast than the regular season. Most fans don't recognize the players on the field because starters get as much action in August as Warcraft fans get on Prom night.

The only certainty about the NFL this time of year is uncertainty – and yet there are some who say betting in August can be a gold mine.

“I actually feel the NFL preseason presents solid profit opportunities for sharp bettors and handicappers,” Sports Expert Steve Merril explains. “My experience has been that the sportsbooks fear the preseason, which is evident by lower limits and massive moves.”

The line moves are attributed to the limited knowledge available regarding playing-time distribution. One team’s top unit out on the field for one more series has an impact on the pointspread. Setting lines in the preseason often is a shot in the dark.

“We base the betting lines mostly on public perception,” Pete Korner, founder of the Sports Club in Las Vegas, says. “It’s very tough to predict, almost a guessing game.”

The preseason is all about figuring out who’s in and for how long.

“It becomes a race between bettors and oddsmakers to find out how long the quarterbacks are going to stay in,” Korner admits. “If a sharp gets the information first, he could exploit an early line. I’m a full believer in moving the line in the preseason if the books find out something late in the week.”

Determining what each team’s motive is can help bettors handicap. To do this you must pay close attention to the philosophies head coaches employ in exhibition play.

“You need to know what a coach is trying to accomplish,” says Covers Expert Bryan Leonard. “Sometimes a new coach will want to instill a winning attitude. Others just want to make sure their starters don’t get hurt."

So how do you distinguish who’s playing scared and who’s playing for keeps?

“Head coaches on the hot seat or new coaches trying to implement a winning attitude usually try harder to win in the preseason,” Merril says.

Cleveland Browns head coach Romeo Crennel fits this criteria. He’s entering his third season as the sideline boss and has yet to lead the Browns to more than six wins.

Cleveland is an enticing bet as well because of the unresolved quarterback situation. General manager Phil Savage sacrificed the Browns’ first-round pick in next year’s draft for Brady Quinn, but the former Notre Dame quarterback hasn’t signed or reported to training camp yet.

Charlie Frye and Derek Anderson split time at QB last season and it looks like either player (or even Quinn) could be the opening-day starter.

“If a team has quarterback depth and the pecking order hasn’t been decided, it’s a big advantage,” Leonard says.

Even in the third week of the preseason when starters generally play the most, the final outcome of the game is in the hands of fringe players. A team's talent, all the way down to the last man on the roster, is something to consider.

The New England Patriots have long been considered one of the deeper teams in the NFL and coach Bill Belichick has said in the past he’s unafraid of stars getting hurt in games with nothing on the line. He shocked his colleagues in 2003 by playing some of his starters on special teams in the preseason.

“We want to have the team ready to play a tough, physical game and preparation has to go into that and I imagine a certain amount of injuries go with it,” Belichick told the Providence Journal in August 2003.

Bettors can only hope to find more teams that share the Pats' business-like approach to the preseason (New England is 17-9-3 against the spread since 2000) and take advantage of teams who detest the exhibition schedule.

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