Cogliano's natural hat trick leads Ducks over Coyotes

Hockey Betting Lines

02/01/2012 - Glendale, AZ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Andrew Cogliano netted a natural hat trick in the second period for the first three-goal game of his career, leading the Anaheim Ducks to a 4-1 victory over the Phoenix Coyotes on Tuesday.

Teemu Selanne also scored and Nick Bonino added a pair of assists. Jonas Hiller stopped 25-of-26 shots for the Ducks, who have won six of their last seven contests.

Ray Whitney scored and Mike Smith was tagged for three goals on 18 shots before being yanked in the second period. Jason LaBarbera stopped all 11 shots he saw for the Coyotes, who have lost four of their last five.

Phoenix struck first at 7:39 of the first period off of a defensive zone turnover by the Ducks.

Selanne held the puck along the right wing and looked to start the breakout, but he lost it to Martin Hanzal in the slot. Hanzal found Radim Vrbata at the right point and the gritty forward then found a cutting Whitney, who deflected Vrbata's pass in behind Hiller.

Cogliano took over in the second period for Anaheim.

His first goal came at 6:59 when Matt Beleskey out-hustled his checker behind the net and spotted Cogliano, who stuffed it home from in front.

Cogliano's second goal occurred at 10:07 when he collected a loose puck in the defensive zone and raced up the left wing on the rush. He gained the blue line with speed a fired a wrist shot on net from a sharp angle that somehow beat Smith to the short side.

The hat trick-clinching tally came at 13:50 when Bonino pushed the puck past the defense and ahead to Cogliano, who went in on net and slid a backhander through the legs of Smith to cap a dominant second period.

Ryan Getzlaf and Niklas Hagman were whistled for penalties late in the second period, giving the Coyotes a two-man advantage, but they were unable to score and Selanne added an empty netter with 1:06 left in regulation to cap the scoring.

Game Notes

Tuesday marked the 100th meeting all-time between the Pacific Division rivals...Smith dropped to 5-3-1 in his career against Anaheim...Phoenix failed to score on three power-play chances, while Anaheim was 1-for-3 with the man advantage...Anaheim will face the Dallas Stars on Wednesday, while the Coyotes will host the San Jose Sharks on Saturday...Phoenix dropped to 11-1-1 when Hanzal records an assist.

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Sportsbook Betting Lines

Who Makes the Sportsbook Betting Lines?

Las Vegas Sports Consultants (LVSC) is the world’s premier oddsmaking company and the most respected authority on making the lines. Mike Seba is a Senior Oddsmaker at LVSC and has been making lines for the last six years. In our extended interview, Seba explained that there are 4-5 oddsmakers assigned to make lines for each of the major sports (pro & college football and basketball; MLB, NHL, boxing, golf). Each of these oddsmakers bring unique opinions, strengths and weaknesses to the process. Oddsmakers at LVSC are professional sports junkies who love what they do and would probably do it for nothing if you asked them, but they do get paid for it. By necessity their approach is very research-oriented and concise, since with millions of dollars at risk there is little margin for error.

“You either have a passion for it or you don’t,” Seba said.

“The #1 thing for us is to make a line for each game that creates good two-way action. We do this by drawing from past experiences and applying them to current situations. People think it’s much more complicated, but it’s not. “

What are the Football Betting Lines Trying to Accomplish?

There is a common misconception that point spreads represent the oddsmakers’ prediction of how many points the favorite will win by. That is not the case at all – their intent is NOT to evenly split the ATS result between the teams; rather, their goal is to attract equal betting action on both sides. Stated another way, they want to create a line that half the people find appealing to bet one way while the other half find it appealing to bet the other way (known as ‘dividing the action’).

Divided action means the sportsbook is guaranteed a profit on the game because of the fee charged to the bettor (called juice or vig – typically $11 bet to win $10).

How the Opening Line Is Made

The opening line is the first line created by the oddsmakers, which is then sent out to sportsbooks. Of course there is an entire method to the madness on how the opening line is created. Seba explained that it all starts with each oddsmaker creating a line on each game based upon their own personal approach. This usually includes having up-to-date power ratings on each team.

Power ratings are the oddsmaker’s value of each team and are used as a guide to calculate a "preliminary" pointspread on an upcoming game. The power ratings are adjusted after each game a team plays. Examples of non-game factors that would require an adjustment to a team's power rating are key player injuries and player trades.

Once a game’s power rating based pointspread is determined, the oddsmaker will make adjustments to that line after considering each team's most recent games played and previous games played against that opponent. Also, adjustments are made after reading each team’s local newspapers to get a sense of what the coaches & players are thinking going into the game.

Since the oddsmaker’s ultimate goal is equally dividing the sports betting action, public perception and sportsbook betting patterns must be taken into account. For example, the public might have heavy betting interest week after week on a popular college football betting team such as USC. If an oddsmaker comes up with a preliminary line of USC -7, then an adjustment up to -7.5 or -8 would be made in response to the public’s expected USC bias.

The last step in the line-making process for each oddsmaker is taking one final look to determine whether or not the line "feels right." This is where common sense and past experience with how games are bet enters into the picture.

A round-table discussion among the 4-5 oddsmakers involved in making the line for each sport is then conducted and a consensus line is decided upon by the Odds Director before it is released to the sportsbooks. Of the 4-5 oddsmakers, generally the 2 most respected opinions are weighed more heavily by the Odds Director before he decides on the final line.

Why Sports Betting Lines Change

Once the opening line is released by LVSC, the individual sportsbooks decide if they want to make any adjustments before offering it to the public. Reasons for such adjustments include:

Experts working for the individual books having a strong opinion on the game

Individual books having players who consistently bet with certain tendencies (such as an extreme bias toward favorites or toward a certain popular team like USC)

The purpose of these adjustments, like all line adjustments, is to more equally divide the betting action.

Once betting begins, sportsbooks can adjust the line at any time. In doing so they attempt to make more attractive the team that is getting less action. By moving the line, sportsbooks can influence how the public bets on a particular game.

For example, if the pointspread on a game is 7 and most of the money is coming in on the underdog (taking the +7), sportsbooks will then move the number down to 6 ½ to try and attract money on the favorite.

Moving the line is the oddsmaker's effort to balance betting action, and often times such moves can have a major impact on a bettor’s decision. Oddsmakers can also change the line depending on various event-related factors such as player injuries or weather. Obviously, if the line comes out a week ahead of the event (which is the case in football), there is much that could happen during the week leading up to the event that could affect the line. Oddsmakers have to determine if any changes are necessary and send out an "adjusted line."

“The main objective is that our clients get equal action on both sides,” Seba said. “We’re not trying to pick the team that covers the spread, we’re trying to make it a coin flip, a tough decision (for the bettor). If we’ve done that, we’ve done our job.”

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