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03/09/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Anaheim Ducks know that their current seven-game homestand might represent their best chance to get back into the playoff picture. However, after a less-than-stellar start to the residency, they should be happy to see the Columbus Blue Jackets coming to town.
Anaheim aims to snap a three-game losing streak while also handing Columbus a sixth setback in a row tonight at Honda Center.
The Ducks have lost their first three games since the Olympic break (0-2-1), including two straight at home. They saw their franchise-record 11-game home win streak end last Wednesday versus Colorado, and after a road loss to Phoenix on Saturday, Anaheim was upended by Montreal, 4-3, in a shootout at Honda Center on Sunday.
Corey Perry, Lubomir Visnovsky and Scott Niedermayer all scored in the first period to stake the Ducks to an early lead, but the Habs netted the next three goals and forced extra time by scoring twice in the game's final 1:50. Anaheim allowed the game-tying goal with 10.7 ticks left.
"With the way we played early in the game, we should have been able to get these two points [Saturday]," Niedermayer said. "They just hung around and waited for a couple of mistakes. They took advantage of it. It's pretty disappointing right now."
The Ducks nearly prevailed in the shootout, as goaltender Jonas Hiller appeared to have stopped Montreal's Brian Gionta in the third round with his team leading the session. However, Hiller drifted back towards the net on the stop and inadvertently knocked the puck into his own goal.
The officials reviewed the tally, as the whistle had not been blown, and confirmed the call on the ice. After James Wisniewski could not score for the Ducks in the fourth round, Tomas Plekanec fired a wrister past Hiller's glove for the game-winner.
Hiller stopped 40 shots in a hard-luck defeat that has the Ducks six points back of a playoff spot.
Anaheim lost its first two meetings with the Blue Jackets this year, but notched a 3-1 win in Columbus when the teams last met on December 12 to earn its seventh win in its last 10 versus the Blue Jackets. The Ducks, though, have dropped two straight and five of their last eight at home to Columbus.
The Blue Jackets don't have much momentum heading into this one. They have lost five straight, their longest skid since a season-high nine-game slide from December 10-26, and are coming off last night's 6-0 loss at Los Angeles in which they were outshot 35-11. Columbus managed only three shots in the first period and another two in the second.
"That was embarrassing," said the Blue Jackets' R.J. Umberger afterward. "We didn't play smart. We are our own worst enemies out there."
Steve Mason was tagged for four goals on 13 shots and did not survive the first period. Mathieu Garon stopped 20-of-22 shots the rest of the way.
To make matters worse, leading scorer Rick Nash left Monday's loss with a lower-body injury and his status for tonight is unknown. He leads the team with 28 goals and 57 points. Fellow forward Kristian Huselius is unlikely for tonight due to hand injury.
Columbus fell to 3-3-2 since replacing Ken Hitchcock on February 3 with interim head coach Claude Noel and is 13 points out of a playoff spot.
<< Canucks visit Avs in clash between Northwest's top two teams
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Of all the games the Vancouver Canucks have played on their
NHL-record 14-game road trip, tonight's contest with the Colorado Avalanche
could be the most important.
Northwest Division-leading Vancouver will try to extend i
<< Panthers aim for rare win against Wild
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Florida Panthers were able to stop their longest losing
streak of the season with victories in their last two games. Now the team will
turn its attention towards ending a long winless drought against the Minnesota
Wild wh
<< Habs return home to face Lightning
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Having just completed a successful road trip, the Montreal
Canadiens will play for the first time at the Bell Centre in nearly a month
when the playoff hopefuls host the Tampa Bay Lightning this evening.
Montreal began its
<< Jazz open trek against Bulls
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The surging Utah Jazz hope to keep the pressure on
Northwest Division-leading Denver when they begin a four-game road trip in the
Windy City against a reeling Chicago Bulls team.
Traditionally the Jazz don't per
2010 Western Athletic Conference Tournament Preview >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Hawaii Warriors may have the most
Western Athletic Conference Tournament titles with three, the last coming in
2002, but this year the islanders aren't even invited to the party as the 27th
annual event k
Where do the Twins go from here? >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - You could almost hear a collective groan this morning, from
Minneapolis all the way down to Fort Myers, as the news began to circulate that
Minnesota Twins closer Joe Nathan could be lost for the season because of a
torn liga
Clark, Randle El to return to Steelers >>
Pittsburgh, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Pittsburgh Steelers have reportedly
agreed to terms with safety Ryan Clark and are also set to bring wide receiver
Antwaan Randle El back to the Steel City.
According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazet
Rapids sign goalkeeper Joyce >>
Commerce City, CO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Colorado Rapids signed goalkeeper
Ian Joyce, the Major League Soccer club announced on Tuesday. The Rapids also
announced the club released forward Facundo Diz and did not offer a contract
to 2010
My fellow Americans, as tempting as it may be to don the coat and HD-ready tie in order to deliver this State of the Game address before the cameras, I know better. As Brad Paisley sings on his latest album, "I'm so much cooler online."
The ideas for this annual essay to kick off the MySportsbook.com college football betting preview flowed like frat-house beer, which is to say they were cheap and spilled all over the floor. The 2007 season will be better than 2007, if only because there will be more of it. A year ago, the NCAA Football Rules Committee made two rule changes in the interest of speeding up the game. These changes went over like Kobe burgers at a vegan banquet.
To its credit, the rules committee rectified its mistakes. This season the clock once again will start when a kickoff is received, rather than when it is kicked, and the clock will not start so quickly on a change of possession.
However, kickoffs have been moved back five yards, to the 30, which will force more returns. (Thus forcing the clock to run. Clever, huh?) Special teams might decide a lot of games, because coaching strategy will come straight out of another new Paisley lyric (almost), I'd like to check you for kicks.
Paisley sings with a twang, which is why he's appropriate for this college football season. The sun coming up over the 2007 college football betting lines season rises from the south. It's a Southern football world. As the Southeastern Conference begins its 75th year, the power shift is noticeable.
Eight-figure budgets, glamorous settings -- and that's just for the head coaches. The SEC has four coaches who have won national championships -- the greatest aggregation of coaching know-how since Eddie Robinson dined alone.
Steve Spurrier, Phil Fulmer, Nick Saban and Urban Meyer have given lie to the idea that a conference championship game is too daunting a hurdle on the road to No. 1. In six of the past 10 seasons, the national champions played and won a conference championship game -- three of the six (Tennessee, 1998; LSU, 2003; Florida, 2007) from the SEC.
There will be more of the same this season, if the preseason prognostications are correct. Six SEC teams are in the preseason coaches' poll, more than from any other conference. Only one conference has talent so deep that a team with 15 returning starters, including the best quarterback in the league, from an eight-win season is considered an afterthought. That may speak more to Kentucky's losing legacy than to the wisdom of the predictions, but there you have it. And seriously, keep an eye on Wildcats QB Andre' Woodson.
The reach of the South extends all the way to No. 1. Take a look at the team that is a consensus pick to win the national championship. The quarterback is from Shreveport. The best wide receiver is from Nashville. The top recruit is from New Orleans.
So what's the campus doing in Los Angeles? Hey, it is the University of Southern California.
USC lost two Pacific-10 Conference games a year ago, the first time that had happened in five seasons, and university officials withstood the urge to form blue-ribbon panels to unearth the cause of such a disaster. Instead, the Trojans gathered themselves and routed Michigan, 32-18, in the Rose Bowl.
USC's losses at Oregon State and at UCLA last year should have given pause to those who question the Pac-10's football prowess (such as, without naming names, L.M. from Baton Rouge). The league only got deeper this season; Dennis Erickson is taking over an Arizona State team that never quite got out of its own way under his predecessor, Dirk Koetter.
Erickson will resume his quest to become the first coach to win a national championship at two schools. Both he and Spurrier, now in his third season at South Carolina, returned to college football at schools with lower profiles than where they won their titles.
That isn't the case for the third coach looking for the national championship double. You may have missed this, but NASA reported the astronauts on the space shuttle last spring made contact with what can only be described as beings from another galaxy.
The leader of the aliens said, "We come in peace," followed by, "So how do you think Nick Saban will do at Alabama?"
The public is reacting to the new Crimson Tide coach as if he is the Barry Bonds of college football -- beloved at home for what his fans believe he is going to do, hated on the road for his intimidating attitude and for what his detractors believe he did (bend NCAA recruiting rules). I made this comparison from the dais at a charity dinner in Mobile, Ala., last month, and the chill that washed over me didn't come from the air conditioning.
Saban will attempt to prove that he can remake in Tuscaloosa what he built in Baton Rouge, much like another member of the national championship fraternity. Bobby Bowden is attempting to remake at Florida State what he built at, um, Florida State. Bowden rebuilt his offensive staff, bringing in four new coaches led by Saban's former offensive coordinator, Jimbo Fisher, to jump-start an offense that has been dead for a couple of years.
The Atlantic Coast Conference is expected to show new signs of life, too. That is said with no disrespect toward last season's champion, Wake Forest, which provided one of the best story lines of 2007. The Demon Deacons begin this season in their customary position, overshadowed by the Virginia Techs, Miamis and Florida States.
It's not that Wake will find it difficult to duplicate its success in 2007 as much as the feeling that success engendered. Surprising success is the narcotic of sport. It never feels quite so euphoric the next time. Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese has figured this out. He refers to 2007, when a league looked down upon by fans and foes alike took three undefeated teams into November, as "Cinderella."
The fairy tale may be over, but the Big East has four genuine Heisman Trophy candidates in Louisville quarterback Brian Brohm, West Virginia tailback Steve Slaton and quarterback Pat White, and Rutgers tailback Ray Rice. Rutgers, as did Wake Forest and, of course, Boise State, proved last season that the have-nots in college football occasionally have quite a lot.
The Broncos' rousing 43-42 overtime victory over Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl has raised the profile of all schools in conferences that don't get automatic BCS bids. This season, TCU and Hawaii are the preseason favorites to burst through the BCS doors and earn an at-large bid. The Warriors return 14 starters from an 11-3 team, including quarterback Colt Brennan.
Brennan not only broke the single-season record with 58 touchdown passes in 2007, but he also led Division I-A in passing efficiency (186.0). The senior is expected to contend for the Heisman Trophy, and neither his success nor the rise of his team should come as any surprise in the 2007 season.
After all, Hawaii is the southernmost team in the country.
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