Tuley: Monday Best Bets in NHL Stanley Cup Finals Game 2, plus 1 MLB First 5 dog

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Sunday Best Bet Results

As I mentioned on my weekly appearance on VSiN’s “The Greg Peterson Experience” (11:15 p.m. ET/8:15 p.m. PT Sundays, or 15 minutes into the archived version), we’re been relying on the zig-zag theory a lot lately and the Heat’s seesaw win vs. the Nuggets was a zig-zag within a zig-zag.
The Heat lost Game of the NBA Finals on Thursday, so they were our Best Bet on Sunday in the zig-zag role (aka “loser of the last” as you bet the team that lost the prior game straight-up). The game opened around Nuggets -9, but we bet it at +8.5 and it closed at 8.

 

We felt confident that the Heat (led by head coach Erik Spoelstra and puppet-master Pat Riley) would make the proper adjustments – and the Heat couldn’t shoot as bad as they did in Game 1 when they still almost covered in the 11-point loss. We felt great when they jumped out to a 7-0 lead, then 10-2 and then 21-10 before the Nuggets rallied and went up by 15. The Heat still trailed by 8 entering the 4th quarter but roared back to lead by 10 themselves before holding on for the 111-108 victory to even the series at 1-1.
We started the day with a loss on the Rockies First 5 Innings +105 at Royals as it looked like were were going to get a push with a scoreless tie entering the bottom of the 5th, but the Royals pushed a run across to beat us.
During that same time, we were clearly on the right side with our USFL play on the Memphis Showboats +2 vs. the New Jersey Generals as they led 13-3 at halftime and coasted to a 25-16 victory. However, we did lose our 2nd MLB play on the Braves First 5 +100 at the Diamondbacks as they trailed 5-3 after 5 innings, though they did rally with a grand slam in the top of the 9th for an 8-5 win for those who bet my plays on the full-game money line.
The 2-2 split dropped by record to a still respectable 6-4-1 (60%) so far in June for a profit of $247.73 based on $100 flat bets, according to the VSiN Pro Picks page after going 41-28-8 (59.4%) in the month of May for a profit of 15.6 units.
Let’s look for plays on Monday (that we already gave out on “The Greg Peterson Experience” and on the VSiN Pro Picks page last night) on Game 2 in the Stanley Cup Finals and just 1 MLB First 5 play, including our play on the Heat that we already gave out early in Saturday’s column, plus another USFL play and 2 more in MLB.

NHL Monday Best Bet

Panthers +120 at Golden Knights: Even though the “zig-zag” is more associated with the NBA playoffs than the NHL, it’s fared better this year in hockey at 39-30 (56.5%), according to my daily ATS Report column – and that’s with a lot of plus-money underdogs. Actually, dogs have also been very profitable all postseason long at 43-37 with 4 games closing pick-’em while home-ice advantage has also been nonexistent as road teams still lead 46-38. This Florida team is much better than it’s No. 8 seed (same as the Heat) and closer to the President’s Trophy winner from last year. Even though VGK won 5-2 in Game 1, I saw these teams as pretty evenly matched (the Panthers led 1-0 and could have easily won) and this series could zig-zag throughout.

MLB Monday Best Bet

Royals First 5 Innings +130 at Marlins: We faded the Royals when they were favored vs. the Rockies, but now we see value in them (in addition to them being a “mini-swagger” play after snapping a 3-game losing streak on Sunday) and think oddsmakers have made the Miami too big of a favorite of around -170 for the game . We’re getting around +130 on the Royals F5 and it’s a pretty even pitching matchup with Carlos Hernandez (0-3, 4.76 ERA) vs. Braxton Garrett (1-2, 4.22 ERA). No other MLB dogs jump out at me on Monday.