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02/12/2012 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Detroit Red Wings will try to tie the NHL record for consecutive home wins when they shoot for their 20th straight victory at Joe Louis Arena tonight against the Philadelphia Flyers.
It's fitting that the Red Wings will go for the record against the Flyers. Philadelphia matched the NHL record for most home wins in a row when it won 20 straight at the Spectrum during the 1975-76 season, equaling the mark first set by the 1929-30 Boston Bruins.
Detroit has extended its club record for consecutive home victories by going 2-0 at the start of a six-game homestand. The wins over Edmonton and Anaheim have boosted the Red Wings' record in the Motor City this year to 22-2-1 and Detroit hasn't lost in front of its home crowd since Nov. 3 against Calgary.
Philadelphia had lost eight straight in Detroit before posting a 3-2 regulation win at the Joe last season on Jan. 2. The Flyers have lost 14 of their last 16 regular-season games in Motown, but Philly has taken two straight and three of four overall in this series.
The Red Wings needed a shootout to post consecutive home win No. 19 on Friday, as Todd Bertuzzi supplied the decisive goal in the third round of the shootout to lift Detroit to a 2-1 victory over the Ducks.
Following an exciting overtime, Bertuzzi skated in on Jonas Hiller very slowly and beat the Anaheim goaltender with a backhander. Joey MacDonald then denied Bobby Ryan to assure the win for Detroit, which leads the Central Division, Western Conference and NHL with 76 points.
"We know it's a grind and not easy, but when you're playing well, especially at home, you just keep going with it and try not to think too much about it," said Detroit defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom.
MacDonald made 29 saves for the Red Wings, as he continues to do a solid job filling in as Detroit's primary starter while Jimmy Howard is sidelined with a broken finger. MacDonald has started the last three games for Detroit and has stopped 64-of-69 shots while posting a 2-1 record in those outings. Howard suffered his finger injury on Feb. 2 and is expected to miss 4-to-6 weeks of action.
In other injury news for the Red Wings, forward Danny Cleary sat out on Friday with a lower-body injury and will miss tonight's game as well as Tuesday's test against Dallas.
Although the Flyers have an 18-8-2 record on the road this year, they won't have much of a chance to halt Detroit's home streak if they don't stop their recent funk. Philadelphia is still fourth in the Eastern Conference with 69 points, but Peter Laviolette's club has lost four of its last five games.
Philadelphia was slammed by the visiting New York Rangers on Saturday afternoon, as Ryan Callahan posted his second career hat trick in a 5-2 win for the Blueshirts. The victory pushed New York's lead atop the Atlantic Division to six over the Flyers as the Rangers improved to 5-0 against Philadelphia this season.
The story of the game was the power play. The Rangers went 3-for-7 with the man advantage, while Philly was 0-for-4. The Flyers only trailed 3-2 heading into the third before letting the game get away from them.
Wayne Simmonds had a goal and an assist for the Flyers and Claude Giroux also scored. Sergei Bobrovsky turned aside 21-of-26 shots in defeat.
"It doesn't feel good. Obviously we played them five times and lost to them five times so it is not a good feeling in here right now," Simmonds said.
Bobrovsky has started the last two games while No. 1 netminder Ilya Bryzgalov has dealt with a bout of the flu. Bryzgalov traveled with the team to Detroit and will likely get the start tonight.
<< Pens welcome Bolts to Steel City
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Pittsburgh Penguins tied a season-high for goals in a
game on Saturday and will try to carry some of that offense into tonight's
contest when they host the Tampa Bay Lightning at Consol Energy Center.
The Penguins host
<< Kings end road trip in Dallas
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Los Angeles Kings will try to end a rough road trip on
a positive note when they visit the rival Dallas Stars for today's Pacific
Division battle at American Airlines Center.
The Kings are 1-3-1 so far on a six-game sw
<< Ducks try to bounce back in Columbus
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Anaheim Ducks will try to rebound from a loss tonight,
when they play the second test of an eight-game road trip against the Columbus
Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena.
The Ducks became the 19th straight opponent to los
<< Isles, Panthers clash at the Coliseum
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The first-place Florida Panthers will try to post their
first three-game winning streak since early December when they visit the New
York Islanders for today's clash at Nassau Coliseum.
Florida, which leads Washington by t
Host Czechs whip Italians 4-1 in Davis Cup >>
Ostrava, Czech Republic (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The host Czech Republic advanced
to the Davis Cup quarterfinals with an easy 4-1 victory over Italy this week.
The Czechs had already clinched the best-of-five tie with a doubles victory in
Ostra
Liverpool's Suarez makes a bad situation worse >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Manchester City's continued rise to prominence, Chelsea's
sudden decline and Tottenham's blistering form have each been major storylines
in the 2011-12 English Premier League season.
Yet racism has emerged as the hot-butto
Argentina tops Germany 4-1 to reach Davis Cup quarters >>
Bamberg, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Argentina settled for a 4-1 victory over
host Germany in a best-of-five opening-round Davis Cup matchup.
The 2011 runner-up Argentines will host Croatia in a quarterfinal in April.
Argentina clinched
Blues activate McDonald >>
St. Louis, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The St. Louis Blues activated forward Andy
McDonald from injured reserve on Sunday.
McDonald has been out of action since suffering a concussion at the end of the
second period on October 13 in Dallas. He
Trash talk has a place in every competitive endeavor (except baseball; those stirrup-wearers are too busy chewing on their sunflower seeds and their supplements to worry about what their opponents are doing).
Fantasy sports is no exception. Any intelligent discussion of the subject would probably start with a thesis statement or a definition of terms. Thankfully, this wont be an intelligent discussion.
Let me just say that I am happy to take a place in this space alongside my talented colleagues, even our commissioner. (You should see how she bleats like a demented paper boy about league fees on our fantasy site).
Trash talking, I would argue, is primarily about amusing your friends, their sheeplike demeanors and sloping foreheads notwithstanding. The best place I have found for football trash talking is at www.SportsAlarm.com.
Beyond the entertainment factor, though, I would recognize that the sophomoric ritual has one advantage, when properly applied. It magnifies your fantasy triumphs and mitigates your fantasy failures by transforming the eventual point total into an afterthought. Winning makes it seem like your opponent really is a truss-owning, lapel-pin-wearing nitwit. And in defeat, trash talk can be the air bag to break the fall from your hyperbolic heights. The plug-necked yahoos on your team, you can say, will be sacking groceries by the end of the season.
The best trash talk, in my view, is layered and nuanced. And it doesnt focus only on your opponents team. It picks apart your opponent. The idea is to create a shock-and-awe-scale blizzard of nonsense, and the goal is to make your opponent drop his hands from his keyboard in exasperation.
What team does your opponent root for? Accuse a Giants fan of having a Joe Namath pillowcase. Wheres your opponent from? Give a look of concern no matter his reply, then say, I'll try to type slower for you next time. Is your opponent into politics? Label everyone a tax-and-spend corporate shill.
Cap all that with a liberal application of irrelevance. For instance, dont just conclude by saying your opponent is a twerp who drafts like my grandmother. Say that your opponent is a sweater-wearing, eyebrow-plucking twerp who drafts his team about as well as Zsa Zsa Gabor gave acceptance speeches at the Oscars. By the time your foe makes sense of that, his starting running back will have had puppies.
But what about you? Hmm? Recall a memorable slam? Have a tried-and-true technique? Know someone who seems impervious to insult? Take a moment and tells us about it. Put together some (fit-for-publication) thoughts. You wont be too busy returning phone messages from your friends, Im sure, to reply.
In addition to the trash talking, the Sports Alarm has a huge gallery of high resolution pictures of beautiful women and models in bikinis. The most popular models are: Lindsay Lohan, Carrie Underwood, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Paris Hilton.
Rule No. 1 in the gamblers' handbook states, "Avoid sports betting on meaningless games."
When you're drowning in a sea of baseball monotony, however, things change. Even a hint of pro football betting can persuade the most disciplined bettor to break a few rules.
The NFL preseason is around the corner, with a tempting Hall of Fame match kicking off on Sunday. But bettors must stay vigilant. Wagering on NFL exhibition games is an entirely different beast than the regular season. Most fans don't recognize the players on the field because starters get as much action in August as Warcraft fans get on Prom night.
The only certainty about the NFL this time of year is uncertainty – and yet there are some who say betting in August can be a gold mine.
“I actually feel the NFL preseason presents solid profit opportunities for sharp bettors and handicappers,” Sports Expert Steve Merril explains. “My experience has been that the sportsbooks fear the preseason, which is evident by lower limits and massive moves.”
The line moves are attributed to the limited knowledge available regarding playing-time distribution. One team’s top unit out on the field for one more series has an impact on the pointspread. Setting lines in the preseason often is a shot in the dark.
“We base the betting lines mostly on public perception,” Pete Korner, founder of the Sports Club in Las Vegas, says. “It’s very tough to predict, almost a guessing game.”
The preseason is all about figuring out who’s in and for how long.
“It becomes a race between bettors and oddsmakers to find out how long the quarterbacks are going to stay in,” Korner admits. “If a sharp gets the information first, he could exploit an early line. I’m a full believer in moving the line in the preseason if the books find out something late in the week.”
Determining what each team’s motive is can help bettors handicap. To do this you must pay close attention to the philosophies head coaches employ in exhibition play.
“You need to know what a coach is trying to accomplish,” says Covers Expert Bryan Leonard. “Sometimes a new coach will want to instill a winning attitude. Others just want to make sure their starters don’t get hurt."
So how do you distinguish who’s playing scared and who’s playing for keeps?
“Head coaches on the hot seat or new coaches trying to implement a winning attitude usually try harder to win in the preseason,” Merril says.
Cleveland Browns head coach Romeo Crennel fits this criteria. He’s entering his third season as the sideline boss and has yet to lead the Browns to more than six wins.
Cleveland is an enticing bet as well because of the unresolved quarterback situation. General manager Phil Savage sacrificed the Browns’ first-round pick in next year’s draft for Brady Quinn, but the former Notre Dame quarterback hasn’t signed or reported to training camp yet.
Charlie Frye and Derek Anderson split time at QB last season and it looks like either player (or even Quinn) could be the opening-day starter.
“If a team has quarterback depth and the pecking order hasn’t been decided, it’s a big advantage,” Leonard says.
Even in the third week of the preseason when starters generally play the most, the final outcome of the game is in the hands of fringe players. A team's talent, all the way down to the last man on the roster, is something to consider.
The New England Patriots have long been considered one of the deeper teams in the NFL and coach Bill Belichick has said in the past he’s unafraid of stars getting hurt in games with nothing on the line. He shocked his colleagues in 2003 by playing some of his starters on special teams in the preseason.
“We want to have the team ready to play a tough, physical game and preparation has to go into that and I imagine a certain amount of injuries go with it,” Belichick told the Providence Journal in August 2003.
Bettors can only hope to find more teams that share the Pats' business-like approach to the preseason (New England is 17-9-3 against the spread since 2000) and take advantage of teams who detest the exhibition schedule.
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