St. Louis leads Tampa over Florida

Hockey Betting Lines

02/04/2012 - Tampa, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Martin St. Louis recorded his fifth career hat trick in his 900th NHL game, as the Tampa Bay Lightning dominated the Florida Panthers, 6-3.

Vincent Lecavalier added a goal and three assists for the Lightning, who ended with a 4-1-1 record against Florida this season. Tampa Bay finished the season series with nine points against Florida, which is the most points it has ever accumulated in one year against its inner-state rival.

Steven Stamkos had a goal and an assist for Tampa Bay, which is 6-0-1 over its last seven games. Mathieu Garon made 17 saves.

Sean Bergenheim ended with a goal and an assist for the Panthers, who had a two-game winning streak snapped. Mikael Samuelsson and Tomas Fleischmann also lit the lamp.

Scott Clemmensen stopped 27-of-32 shots. Brian Foster made his NHL debut at the end of the second period, stopping the only shot he faced.

Tampa Bay drew first blood in this Southeast Division battle at the 1:37 mark of the first period. Nate Thompson blocked Mike Weaver's shot from the right point and raced down the ice with the puck before firing a wrister through Clemmensen's pads.

Fleischmann's shot from the right circle beat Garon at the 3:54 mark, making it a 1-1 game.

The Lightning took the lead back early in the middle stanza. Florida turned the puck over in its own zone and Lecavalier's snap shot from the slot beat Clemmensen at the 1:42 mark.

St. Louis made it a 3-1 game at the 4:22 mark. Following a scramble for a loose puck in front of the net, St. Louis slid a shot past Clemmensen.

The Panthers lit the lamp less than three minutes later to make it a one-goal game again. Samuelsson stole the puck in the Tampa Bay zone and Bergenheim was there to gather the disc at the slot. Bergenheim's shot left a rebound at the side of the net for Samuelsson.

But another Florida turnover led to Stamkos finding the back of the net at the 12:36 mark.

St. Louis added another Tampa Bay goal at 15:08, but Bergenheim cut the gap to 5-3 on a breakaway in the final minute of the frame.

St. Louis' empty-net goal with 21 seconds remaining made it 6-3.

Game Notes

The Panthers have used four goalies in a single season for just third time in franchise history (1997-98, 1999-2000)...The Lightning improved to 3-0-1 on a five-game homestand...The Panthers fell to 18-2-4 when scoring at least three goals.

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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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