Caps shoot for fifth straight win in test with Blues

Hockey Betting Lines

12/18/2008 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Washington Capitals will try to match their longest winning streak of the season when they welcome the struggling St. Louis Blues for tonight's matchup at Verizon Center.

The Capitals have won four in a row and will try to duplicate their five-game winning streak from November 6-14. Washington is leading the Southeast Division with 41 points and is eight ahead of second-place Carolina.

Washington's latest victory came Tuesday evening in a road test against the New York Islanders. Alex Ovechkin's laser wrist shot from the slot in the waning seconds of overtime lifted the Caps to the 5-4 win at Nassau Coliseum.

Ovechkin also scored in regulation along with Boyd Gordon, Brooks Laich and Milan Jurcina for the Capitals. Brent Johnson stopped 35 shots in the victory.

Ovechkin has recorded points in five straight games and has five goals and three assists during the run. The Russian sniper is third in the NHL with 42 points (19 goals, 23 assists) this season.

Nicklas Backstrom also comes into tonight with a five-game point streak and has three goals and six helpers during his tear.

The Caps are making a brief stop at home before heading out on a two-game road trip that begins Saturday in Philadelphia. Washington is 12-1-1 as the host this year and has won three straight in the nation's capital.

The Blues, meanwhile, have lost four straight and each of those losses have come in regulation.

St. Louis last played on Tuesday when it was handed a 6-3 setback by visiting Calgary. Jarome Iginla scored twice and added two assists while Miikka Kiprusoff made 28 saves to lift the Flames to the rout at Scottrade Center.

Brad Boyes and David Backes scored for the Blues. Patrik Berglund added an unassisted tally and Chris Mason allowed six goals on 31 shots in the loss.

David Perron added an assist in the loss to extend his point streak to five games. He has five helpers during the stretch.

In addition to dropping four straight games, St. Louis also has 3-7-1 record in its last 10 tilts.

The Blues have also lost four in a row on the road and are just 5-9-1 as the visiting team this season.

St. Louis is 9-1 with a tie in the last 11 meetings with the Capitals.

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What Is the Point Spread?

What are Sports Betting Point Spreads?

In any football or basketball game (the main sports that use point spreads) there are two teams playing against each other.

Those teams, though, are rarely exactly evenly matched – meaning that typically one team has a better chance than the other to win the game. If bettors were allowed to bet on who was simply going to win the game, smart ones would obviously bet on the better team (likely winning more than 50% of the time in the process).

If winning were that easy the Las Vegas and online sportsbooks would stop taking any bets! This is where the point spread comes in: the basic function of the point spread is to balance the likelihood of each team “winning” by adjusting the final score by the point spread. After this adjustment is made you get the Against The Spread result (ATS result for short).

Let’s look at Super Bowl XXXIX, New England Patriots vs. Philadelphia Eagles. Most people believed the defending champ Patriots to be the better team – so if betting were simply based upon which team would win the game, an uneven majority of people would have wagered on New England. But, by using the point spread, the bookmakers adjusted the terms of the bet, evening the proposition so about half the people believed the Pats to be the smart bet, while the other half considered Philly to be the smart bet.

How to Read Point Spreads

New England Patriots -7 vs. Philadelphia Eagles

The better team, called the Favorite, is expected to win the game and must “give” or “lay” points to the weaker team. The favorite is listed with a minus sign and the number of points they are favored by (e.g., New England -7)

In the case of our example, New England must not only win the game, but they must win by more than 7 points for Pats bettors to have a winning ATS result. An Eagles bettor wins his bet either if:

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