![\"Sports](\"http:\/\/www.bodogaffiliate.com\/resources\/banners\/sportsbook\/square\/250x250\/250x250c-sportsbook.gif\" "\\"NHL")
The Ducks still have goodwill in the greater L.A. region after winning the Cup two years ago; the Hawks are a rising force in the West that got some valuable exposure playing Detroit in this year\u2019s Winter Classic at Wrigley Field.<\/p>\nIt\u2019s no accident that the NHL All-Star Game is this Sunday \u2013 our first Sunday in a long time without football. The league\u2019s annual showcase marks the unofficial halfway point of the hockey season, and it\u2019s been a banner year for the league despite the economic downturn. Television ratings for the latest New Year\u2019s Eve Winter Classic were up 12 percent, continuing a strong trend that saw the Detroit Red Wings and Pittsburgh Penguins draw the biggest Stanley Cup Final numbers in six years.<\/p>\n
The more new fans the league can pull in, the more money there is to be made for sharp handicappers. There is a considerable gap in puck knowledge between sharps and squares. A value-based betting approach allows handicappers to rake in the dough by exploiting this gap, which happens to be on full display at this time of year. Case in point: You won\u2019t find anyone from the current top NHL teams in the starting lineup for either the Eastern or Western Conference.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s understandable that the Eastern starters would be overloaded with four members of the Montreal Canadiens. The Habs are playing host to this year\u2019s game at the Bell Centre, and the two-day spectacle (including Saturday\u2019s skills competition and YoungStars rookie-sophomore matchup) is part of the franchise\u2019s 100th birthday celebration. So motivated Montrealers have punched their fan ballots and ensured that Carey Price (.921 save percentage) gets to start for the East instead of Boston\u2019s Tim Thomas, the top goalie in the league this season with a .937 save percentage.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s also not a surprise that the four Habs are joined by Pittsburgh\u2019s Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. These are two of the game\u2019s greatest individual stars; Malkin led the league at press time with 69 points, and Crosby was second with 59. But the Penguins are in fourth place in the Atlantic Division at 23-20-4. Thomas and the Bruins have the best record in the East at an immensely profitable 33-8-5. Montreal is sandwiched in between at 27-11-6.<\/p>\n
The real confusion is on the left side of the map. All the Western starters are members of either the Anaheim Ducks (including goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere) or the Chicago Blackhawks. These two teams represent two of the three biggest markets in the United States \u2013 New York being the most heavily populated. The Ducks still have goodwill in the greater L.A. region after winning the Cup two years ago; the Hawks are a rising force in the West that got some valuable exposure playing Detroit in this year\u2019s Winter Classic at Wrigley Field.<\/p>\n
The issue here is that the 25-10-8 Blackhawks are 10 points behind the 31-8-6 Red Wings in the Central Division race. Worse, the 23-19-5 Ducks are 20 points out of first place in the Pacific, home of the 33-6-5 San Jose Sharks and their money machine. The Western All-Star team is at a real disadvantage with all these Ducks flying around. At least the Eastern squad has Thomas on the roster as a reserve selection; the hottest goalie in the West, Columbus rookie Steve Mason (.932 SV%), will have to settle for playing in the YoungStars game.<\/p>\n
This All-Star snubbery happens every year, but the betting value doesn\u2019t disappear once the regular season starts again. Columbus supporters have already made a mint supporting Mason, who has a 17-10-1 record as a member of the small-market Blue Jackets. The second half of the season should continue to be profitable as long as Mason is standing on his head in relative obscurity. The Bruins have been slowly developing talent in the shadow of the Patriots and Red Sox; rookie Blake Wheeler (13 goals in 45 games, plus-27) and sophomore Milan Lucic (11 goals in 40 games, plus-16) are two of the reasons why Boston is in first place and a strong candidate to stay there.<\/p>\n
The Bruins have a key betting game coming up on Wednesday night at the Air Canada Centre against the 17-22-7 Toronto Maple Leafs. Toronto fans are to hockey what Chicago Cubs fans are to baseball: eternally loyal throughout years of heartbreak, and prone to betting that way. Boston is 3-1 in four games against the Leafs this year at a combined score of 18-13. Even a referee can see the betting value here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It’s no accident that the NHL All-Star Game is this Sunday – our first Sunday in awhile without football. Bodog Sportsbook previews the NHL All-Star game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[9006,9008,9009,2276,2998,3153,9012,9010,9011,9004,9007,1957,1962],"class_list":["post-7470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nhl","tag-2009-nhl-all-star-game","tag-all-star-game-betting","tag-all-star-game-gambling","tag-hockey-betting","tag-hockey-gambling","tag-hockey-sportsbook","tag-nhl-all-star-game","tag-nhl-all-star-game-lines","tag-nhl-all-star-game-odds","tag-nhl-all-star-game-preview","tag-nhl-all-star-weekend","tag-nhl-betting","tag-nhl-sportsbook"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7470"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7470\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":106733,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7470\/revisions\/106733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}