Caps score four unanswered in third to upend Ducks

Hockey Betting Lines

01/27/2010 - Washington, DC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Alexander Semin had his second straight two- goal game as the Washington Capitals extended their winning streak to eight straight games with a 5-1 thrashing of the Anaheim Ducks.

The Capitals, who lead the Eastern Conference with 76 points, have their first eight-game winning streak since 1989 thanks in part to Semin, who scored two goals in Tuesday's 7-2 romp of the Islanders and currently has a seven-game point streak with six goals and eight assists during the run.

Alex Ovechkin had a goal and two assists while Mike Knuble and Shaone Morrisonn each had a goal and an assist for the Capitals, who have won seven straight at home. Michal Neuvirth made 30 stops in the win.

Dan Sexton scored the lone goal while Jean-Sebastien Giguere stopped 44-of-49 shots in the loss for the Ducks, who have dropped three of four.

The game was knotted a 1-1 heading into the third, but the Caps scored three times over a 2:30 span early in the frame to take control.

Just 1:45 into the third, Morrisonn's shot from the high slot hit off the skate of Steve Eminger and went into the net.

Only 54 seconds later, Washington made it a 3-1 game as Ovechkin deked an Anaheim player at the right blue line to turn a rush into a 2-on-1 and dished it over to the left side for Knuble, who backhanded the puck past Giguere.

Semin completed the burst 1:36 later as he roofed a backhander down low on a breakaway for a 4-1 lead.

Semin made it a 5-1 game with 8:13 to play on a one-timer from the left circle on a 5-on-3 power play.

Just 36 seconds into the contest, Washington took a 1-0 lead as Mike Green threw the puck on net from the right point that Knuble knocked down in front and Ovechkin slammed into the open net.

Despite giving up the goal, Giguere was solid in net in the first period as he stopped a total of 18 shots in the first frame to keep it a one-goal contest.

Anaheim tied the game with 8:37 to play in the second period as Sheldon Brookbank one-timed a loss puck in the high slot that Neuvirth made a save on, but Sexton deposited the rebound in the back of the net.

Game Notes

Washington hosts Florida on Friday...The Ducks continues their six-game road trip in Tampa on Friday...The Capitals have won three of the last four in the series...Washington went 1-for-5 on the power play while Anaheim was 0-for-2.

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SPORTS BETTING - Tennis is an underrated and under-utilized bettors' sport.

Ten years ago, at just about this time, I called Alan Boston in Vegas and left him a voicemail that went something like this (abridged version): "Hey Alan, Chad Millman from ESPN The Magazine calling. I want to do a book about wise guys, you in?"

A couple weeks later I got a message back (abridged version): "I don't know, maybe," Boston said. "Call me and we'll talk about it. But not later today. I got $1,000 on Andre Agassi to win the French Open at 40-1, and he's in the finals."

Here's what happened next (abridged version): Agassi won his tourney. Boston won his $40,000. I wrote sportsbook.

In the ten years since, how much has been wagered on the big-time tennis events? Put it this way: The Nevada Gaming Commission doesn't even track the number year by year because it's so small.

"Tennis makes up about one-tenth of one percent of our take," says Lucky's bookmaking boss Jimmy Vaccaro. "The last big golf major we probably had $100,000 worth of bets. In tennis, we might have written two big tickets."

Tennis' lack of popularity amongst the American bettoratti is no surprise, really. For starters, the biggest sports betting holidays -- the Super Bowl, the NCAA tourney -- are must see TV. People, at least the degenerates I know, plan vacations around watching those events in Vegas sports books.

But Wimbledon? Doesn't exactly reel in the whales. "Seriously, it's the nuts as an event," says Boston. "But who even knows when it's on?"

Here's another reason that helps explain why golf gets traction, something I call "The Bubbe Theory." My Bubbe is pushing 95 and has cataracts so bad that, to her, even the most crystalline Chicago day is mostly cloudy. But she still listens to the Cubs games, and she still calls me in a fit if she disagrees with something Rick Telander writes in the Chicago Sun Times. She's a sports fan. If she doesn't know you, you're just filling a niche. And niche players, even historically good ones like Roger and Raf, don't drive betting volume. Only the highest profile names attract square money, which inflates wagering totals like a shot of saline to the lips. Bubbe, and the public, loved Agassi, tennis' last cross-the-rubicon, mainstream draw. She also has a crush on Tiger. She's given me standing orders to put a sawbuck on the big cat whenever I walk through a sports book (or mistakenly tap into one via my Internet machine.) That explains why the Masters is getting $100K in action at some books while the four tennis majors might not get that combined this year.

This isn't a case of tennis being a difficult sport to bet. In fact, in Europe, it's probably the second most popular sport for gambling after soccer. Granted, as the WSJ football betting last week and The Mag's Shaun Assael examined in even greater depth last year, that might be because gamblers across the pond see it as an easy game to fix. But it could also be because, over there it holds the kind of sway the big two do over here.

Street corners in Spain are peppered with public courts and kids doing their best Raffy impressions. In some war torn parts of Eastern Europe poverty-stricken kids view tennis as an escape route, like football or basketball here. A couple years ago The Mag's Lindsay Berra wrote a great piece about Belgrade's Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic. They learned the game as kids while bombs were raining down on their homeland. They practiced in drained swimming pools. Not exactly Nick Bolletierri conditions.

In the United States, casual fans think tennis is played four times a year. But on the tightly packed European continent, national interest in homegrown talent runs deep every weekend. Of the ATP's current top 20 players, only two, tennis betting and James Blake, are American. Fourteen are from Europe, representing six different countries.

No wonder fans from Lisbon to Bhudapest get jacked up for the net game, whether it's Wimbledon or a low-level tourney like the Estoril Open in Portugal (congrats to Spain's Albert Montanes for winning that one, btw). Chances are good that someone representing their flag will not only be playing, but have a shot at winning.

And that's all any bettor can ask for.

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