So, my Vegas preamble to an amazing Coachella Music Festival yielded some interesting preliminary impressions about pucks in the first city of sin.  In a nutshell, hockey (and playoff hockey at that) emerges well south of the end-of-the-regular-season NBA to the grizzled chops running the books.  No problem.  When I wasn’t double dinnering and crushing the house at PaiGow, I still spent some quality time in 4 books over the course of two nights.  While the Mirage was excellent (the entire renovation was very well done, btw), it was the Wynn that had absolutely the best set up and was the hockey-friendliest I found.  And many thanks to those who rec’d Firefly for chow—outstanding tapas and killer sangria helped drown my post-game 1.  I would submit that on Thursday night, Lotus of Siam—well off the strip in a blank strip mall facing away from the street–was even better…a top 3 Thai experience for me.  Authentic, superb, and cheap.

On to the odds.  Much has changed in the last two weeks, but Vegas of course still loves the B’s and the Wings.  Some new favorites have emerged however, with our pals from the end of the PA turnpike looking like they’re back to form.  Nuts to you Bill Guerin.

Why is it small comfort that Vegas again frowns on the Rags?

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Not a whole lot has changed in the last week, but some interesting trends have emerged now that the matchups have been set.  Out West, the Red Wings and the Sharks have maintained their lines, but sneaking up quickly is Vancouver and the Blackhawks are getting more action as well. 

In the East, the Bruins maintained their line, and Carolina and Pittsburgh saw more action to the good this week.  But the Devils and Caps had their odds legthen slightly, as did those of the Flyers, while futures on the Rangers and Habs plunged like Elisha Cuthbert's neckline.  How Montreal is still viewed as more likely to win the Cup than St. Louis is mysterious to say the least.

Carolina at 22-1 looks like a pretty solid ROI to me.  And now that they're in, does anyone else see Anaheim as a relative bargain at 40-1 with that lineup?

What do you all think? 

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Not a whole lot has changed in the last week, but some interesting trends have emerged now that the matchups are set.  Out West, the top two have maintained their lines, but sneaking up quickly is Vancouver and the Blackhawks are getting more action as well.  And now that they're in, does anyone else see Anaheim as a relative bargain at 40-1 with that lineup?

In the East, the Bruins maintained their line, as did the Devils and Caps.  Carolina and Pittsburgh saw more action to the good this week, while the Flyers, Rangers and Habs are getting longer odds.  Carolina at 22-1 looks like a pretty solid ROI to me.

What do you all think? 

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Since I won't be at the Booth, I am looking forward to my trip to Las Vegas next week for the first two nights of the NHL playoffs, and naturally I am curious about how the Big V handles the puck.  Here's a gander at current lines from a 'reputable source'.  The top 5 make sense--and the Caps at 6-1 looks, well, about right.  But is anyone else a little bit nonplussed by all the love for Calgary, or how down in the mouth the bookies are on the Pens?  Does Vegas know something we don't?  Count on it.

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