Sports Betting Overview

Whenever two New York Cityteams meet in a playoff series, the press is quick to dub that series a “Subway Series.” Aside from its potential commercial implications, calling a series a “Subway Series” indicates that these are two cross-town rivals battling it out for bragging rights. The state of New Jerseyhas become such a part of the sports landscape in New York Citythat the NHLEastern Conference Finals between the New Jersey Devils and the New York Rangers has taken on the feeling of a “Subway Series” for the teams and the fans. The online sportsbook observers could not help but notice how split the crowd seemed in game one of this series that was played inMadisonSquareGarden. The whole aura probably removes any home ice advantage that the Rangers would have, which just leaves the teams to play hockey.

The Devils had a lot of problems getting offense to the net in game one. That was a recurring theme in the regular season that New Jerseythought it had rectified when the playoffs started. The price per head bookie websites also took note on how much trouble the Devils’ defense and goaltending seemed to have containing a rather energetic set of New York forwards. These kinds of things are not exactly what the Devils wanted to see at the outset of this series.

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Online Sportsbook Overview

The warning flags should be going up all over the Big Apple about the Rangers’ realistic chances at winning the Stanley Cup this year. The Rangers required overtime of the seventh game of the series with Ottawato final crack the shell of what had been a weak Ottawadefense. Now the Rangers need a seventh game to decide whether or not Big Blue can get past Washington’s rookie goaltender. Even the best sportsbook online is having a hard time understanding how one player could be giving the Rangers such a hard time. ButWashington rookie goaltender Braden Holtby continues his Dryden-esque performance in this series by driving the Rangers crazy.

The Capitals are suddenly finding its scoring right when it needs it. All season long, the Washington Capitals could not find its scoring touch. Alex Ovechkin and Alexander Semin were not the point scoring machine they normally are. The Capitals looked disorganized, disgruntled and disinterested when the playoffs started. But the persistent play of Holtby has inspired the Capitals to come together as a team and start playing to its potential. The price per head sports experts had always considered Washington a potentially dangerous team, even when the Caps were falling apart during the season. But it took a rookie goalie to bring the team together and force it to be great.

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The NHLplayoffs are in full swing, but the online sportsbook experts are already looking towards next season to see which teams will rise and which ones will fall. For this season, the story everyone is talking about is the St. Louis Blues. The Blues went from 11^th place in the Western Conference last year to second place this year. Now the online sports book enthusiasts are trying to see which team will be the St. Louis Blues next season and rise to the top of the league.

Winnipeg Jets

The problem the Winnipeg Jets are having is that it is run by the same management team that could not get the Atlanta Thrashers over the playoff hump. The Jets did the same thing this year that the Thrashers had done for years prior. The team started out strong, contended for a playoff spot, and then faded down the stretch. The Jets have a great goalie in Ondrej Pavelec, but the team plays poor defense in front of him. The price per head sports experts see a lot of potential in the Winnipeg Jets, but the Jets are going to need to shore up its defense if it wants to win games.

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The sports betting world all but ignored the news headlines that were made in the hockey world when Ken Hitchcock became the head coach of the St. Louis Blues in the off-season. Hitchcock had disappeared for a couple of years, lost some weight and re-entered the NHL with a new mission. Now he has taken a St. Louis Blues team that finished in 11^th place in the Western Conference last year and turned it into a playoff powerhouse. The amazing thing is that he did it without making a whole lot of roster changes. The online betting experts can’t ignore the St. Louis Blues any longer.

Offense

The St.Louis Blues have never had a problem scoring goals. As a matter of fact, the Blues have scored less goals this year than it did last year. In the 2010-2011 season, the Blues scored 240 goals. But in the 2011-2012 season, the Blues scored 210 goals. The price per head sports experts have never really considered Hitchcock a defensive-minded coach, but he has always been big on forechecking. The Blues’ offense has become obsessed with keeping the play in the opposition’s end and making sure that the puck does not cross into theSt. Louis end. The forwards play great positional hockey and are extremely aggressive. It is a complete change from last season and it has made a significant difference in the way that the Blues approach each game.

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It took less than a week for the first three rounds of the March Madness betting tournament to be completed, and while the all four No. 1 seeds made it through to the Sweet 16, there were some underdog stories that made it through, most notably in the Midwest region, where the 11^th-seeded North Carolina State Wolfpack and 13^th-seeded Ohio Bobcats have each made it through. The Wolfpack were all over the San Diego State Aztecs from the opening tipoff in a 14-point first-round win, and then did just enough to knock off a No. 3 seed in Georgetown to get through the third round, but it won’t get any easier for North Carolina State in the Sweet 16, with the overrated/underrated Kansas Jayhawks waiting for them. Meanwhile, the Bobcats had no problem with the Michigan Wolverines when the tournament got to 64 teams, and then knocked off an SFU team that dominated Temple to earn a date with the North Carolina Tar Heels in the Sweet 16. Both matchups favor the higher seed as listed on Betonline, but then again, this is the Madness and anything can happen.

(13) Ohio Bobcats vs. (1) North Carolina Tar Heels

Friday, 3:23 PM ET

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One of the biggest sports betting debates that seemed to center around the SEC this season was the legitimacy of calling the No. 1 Kentucky Wildcats the best team in the country based on the fact that they completed their conference schedule with a perfect record. On the one hand, there were those that pointed out how incredibly rare it is for a team to win all 16 games on their conference schedule and finish No. 1, which is understandable. On the other hand, the fact that the Wildcats had only one SEC victory that came by a margin of less than six points, including a pair of blowout wins over the No. 19 Florida Gators that came by a combined 25 points, is proof that Kentucky really just didn’t have any true competition in the SEC and was able to benefit from playing in a conference void of top national contenders. The fact that the Wildcats beat both Kansas and UNC earlier in the year will keep critics from attacking their place at the top of the national rankings regardless of the timing of those wins, but looking forward to the SEC tournament there may not be much reason to even bother watching.

Head coach John Calipari’s team is expected to absolutely dominate in the tournament, and right now there isn’t even a single reason to think that they wouldn’t. With as many as six scorers that are capable of hitting double-digit point totals in a single game, the Wildcats boast unparalleled talent and depth in the SEC. Even mort importantly is the way that talent is spread out in terms of size and intangibles, with potential NBA first-overall draft pick Anthony Davis dominating down low as the top big man in the country, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist a future lottery pick out on the perimeter, Doron Lamb a steady difference-maker, and Marquis Teague the consistent playmaker that makes the offense work from the point. That all goes without even mentioning Terrence Jones and Darius Miller, and when you line them all up, a very strong argument can be made that Kentucky has the most talented per head roster in the country.

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Sportsbooks Overview

If anyone would have said that a game in February between the Ottawa Senators and Florida Panthers would be a battle of two playoff powerhouses, most price per head sports experts would have called that statement crazy. But the Panthers are the top team in the Southeast Division and the Senators have been battling for the fifth and sixth playoff spots for most of the season. The Florida Panthers are the only team in the Southeast Division currently in the playoff hunt. Things have turned a bit upside down in theNHL and now we have a game where both teams need the points to stay in the thick of the playoff race.

The 2012 March Madness betting is in full swing in the state ofFlorida and the only FloridaNHL franchise currently in a playoff spot is the Florida Panthers. While the Panthers are taking advantage of a weak Southeast Division, it should be noted thatFlorida would still have a playoff spot even if it was not the division leader. The Senators are clinging to a playoff spot in a Northeast Division that has seen the re-emergence of the Buffalo Sabres and the Montreal Canadiens. When you factor in the Toronto Maple Leafs who are right on the Senators’ heels, then you get a congested playoff race in the Eastern Conference.

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Sports Betting Overview

When sports fans start betting March Madness college basketball games, that means that the end of theNHL season is not too far off. Now the mad scramble for playoff spots in theNHL begins and teams like the Ottawa Senators are trying to atone for several bad seasons in a row by finally making it into the post-season tournament.Ottawa is currently ranked seventh in the Eastern Conference, but everyOttawa win moves the Senators closer to the top of the conference standings. It is unlikely thatOttawa will catch Northeast Division leadingBoston for the top spot in the division. ButOttawa could land that fourth spot in the conference and get home ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

The Florida Panthers have two less points in the standings than the Senators, but Florida’s status as the leader of the Southeast Division makes them the number three seed in the conference. The pay per head sports experts have been trying to figure out howFlorida manages to win games on a fairly consistent basis.Florida does not score a lot of goals, it does not win a lot of games on the road and it does not play any real grinding style of defense.Florida is getting decent goaltending but nothing spectacular. The Panthers just seem to be able to score goals at key moments and sneak out of games with wins that it could not grab last year. In a weak Southeast Division, the Panthers appear to be the best of the group.

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After coming so very close to beating out the Duke Blue Devils and capturing an ACC title a year ago, the North Carolina Tar Heels took a step back and reflected on all that they had done. Even though they may not have had the talent and depth that the Blue Devils had at the time, they still managed to take one of the three meetings against them and battle them to the end of a disappointing ACC title game. On top of that strong play, they also had the hope that this year would be different, that they would get their turn with the stronger talent and greater depth. The Tar Heels entered this season as the preseason pay head favorites to win it all, not just within the ACC, but on the national landscape as well. Despite faltering early on,North Carolina still held the lead going in to their first game of the season against Duke on Wednesday night. Then, it happened.

With time ticking down in the fourth quarter of the Tar Heels first clash of the season with their biggest conference rivals, a familiar face came up big, as Austin Rivers nailed a three-pointer at the horn to give Duke an 85-84 road win over North Carolina. A game in which the Tar Heels seemed to control until the very end slipped out of their grasp with that final shot, snapping North Carolina’s school-record 31-game home winning streak. Rives scored a season-high 29 in the contest including six three-point shots, and the last actually came over the Tar Heels’ biggest defender in seven-footer Tyler Zeller in the final seconds. A stunned crowd at Chapel Hillwatched on as Rivers and the Betonline underdogs celebrated in a game that meant so much to both teams, and just like that, the Blue Devils are now tied with UNC for first in the ACC.

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The online betting world is fixated on the Super Bowl and the race for the NHL playoffs. Now that the NHL All-Star break is over, many of the teams in the lower part of the NHL standings need to start making their playoff pushes or risk being left out of the post-season. There are a few teams that have been slumping as of late and put themselves in bad situations while other teams are surging but may not be able to get out of the hole they have dug themselves. Lets look at the teams in the NHL that are battling for a playoff spot and evaluate their chances.

Buffalo Sabres
The Sabres may have dug themselves a hole that they will not be able to climb out of. When the All-Star break ended, the Sabres were tied for last in the Eastern Conference and 10 points out of a playoff spot. In its last three games, the Sabres are 2-0-1 and that includes an exciting 1-0 loss to the Eastern Conference leading New York Rangers. The Sabres are going to need to string a lot of wins together to have any chance of making the playoffs, but it is off to a good start so far.

Washington Capitals
The price per head sports experts were not sure what to expect from the Washington Capitals this season. What has emerged is a listless team that has already gotten one coach fired and is working on getting a second coach relieved of his duties as well. The scoring punch the Caps used to have is gone and there is just no stability in the nets for Washington. If the Caps want to make the playoffs, it will have to wrestle the Southeast Division title from the Florida Panthers, and that will not be easy.

Tampa Bay Lightning
The Florida Panthers not only have to watch out for the Washington Capitals, but the Tampa Bay Lightning are making strides towards the division lead as well. The Lightning are currently riding a five-game winnings streak and have pulled itself to within nine points of the division lead after spending much of the season in the Southeast basement.

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