Sliding Blackhawks make a stop in Calgary

Hockey Betting Lines

02/03/2012 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Chicago has not gotten its club record-tying road trip off to the best of starts and a trip to Calgary may not be the remedy it is looking for.

The Blackhawks try to avoid a season-high fifth straight loss overall and seventh on the road as they visit a Flames club that continues to struggle scoring at home.

Chicago is playing the third of nine in a row on the road, losing an overtime test in Vancouver on Tuesday prior to last night's 8-4 defeat in Edmonton. The Blackhawks are 0-4-2 in their past six away from Chicago overall and haven't won as the guest since Dec. 14.

It was a one-man show in Edmonton last night, with the Oilers' Sam Gagner matching an Oiler record with eight points off four goals and four assists. He tied a mark held by greats Wayne Gretzky and Paul Coffey.

"What can you say about a game like that," said Chicago forward Patrick Sharp. "That guy (Gagner) had the magic touch tonight."

Sharp's touch wasn't too bad either as he logged a pair of goals, one shorthanded, while Jamal Mayers and Dave Bolland also scored in defeat. Chicago has dropped nine of its past 14 overall to slip six points behind Detroit for first place in the Central Division.

The Blackhawks will hope to avoid posting their first five-game slide since March 13-20, 2009 and will look for better goaltending this evening. Starter Corey Crawford was pulled in the third after allowing five goals on 28 shots, while Ray Emery yielded three tallies on 13 shots.

Chicago also lost forward Andrew Brunette with an upper-body injury.

Calgary will be looking to salvage the finale of a three-game homestand following losses to San Jose and Detroit. After getting shut out by the Sharks prior to the All-Star break, the Flames were dealt a 3-1 loss by the Red Wings on Tuesday.

Michael Cammalleri had the lone goal for Calgary, which has lost four of six overall and sits five points out of a playoff spot.

"We had some darn good opportunities and we didn't capitalize," said Calgary head coach Brent Sutter. "It's not like we're not getting opportunities and we had three or four quality scoring chances where we missed the net and didn't even get a rebound out of it."

Miikka Kiprusoff matched Mike Vernon's club record for games played by a goaltender with 526, a mark he will likely break this evening. He gave up three goals on 25 shots in Tuesday's loss.

Calgary also lost a key forward on Tuesday, with Lee Stempniak suffering a high ankle sprain that will keep him out of action for approximately six weeks.

The Flames have been held to just 55 goals at home this year, tied with Columbus for the fewest in the league, but did log a 5-2 home win over the Blackhawks back on Nov. 18.

Chicago, though, has a pair of home victories over the Flames this season as well and has won 12 of the past 15 encounters overall despite a three-game slide in Calgary.

Marian Hossa has logged a pair of goals and three assists versus the Flames this year, with teammates Sharp and Jonathan Toews adding four assists each.

Curtis Glencross and Olli Jokinen have logged five points each for Calgary versus Chicago this season, but Glencross has missed the past four games with a left MCL ailment.

Basketvall Hockey Betting News

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SPORTS BETTING: NFL Football Sportsbook Betting

NFL owners, already life's biggest winners, want to try their luck with the lottery.


That was the news out of their meetings last week, where team bosses voted unanimously to allow stamping state and local lottery tickets with franchise logos, if, ahem, any governments wanted to do a deal.

A shocker: Within days the Pats announced they'd be sponsoring the Massachusetts state lottery, the Skins said they'd slap their sticker on Virginia scratch-offs and the Ravens admitted they were talking to Maryland lottery bosses. In all likelihood, it won't be long before every team is a presenting sponsor of scratch-offs or just plain old pick fives. "The change in policy was approved 32-0," said NFL spokesman Greg Aiello. "So you can expect to see more deals soon."

It's a branding opportunity too big for the owners to ignore, and one a couple of dozen baseball franchises have enjoyed for years. The fact the NFL has been slower to act than those slack-brained Seligites is indicative of its complicated relationship with all forms of gambling. Consider this: Last Thursday, as the Pats and the Redskins finalized their new lottery deals, a lawyer representing the NFL argued before Delaware's Supreme Court that the state's newly signed sports betting law should be repealed.

The NFL betting is the face of opposition to sports gambling . And as much as it would like to share that responsibility with other leagues, that's not going to happen as long as more than 40% of all money legally wagered on games is bet on football. That's why the Brewers can do a multi-million dollar deal with a local casino, or the Celtics can make their own pact with the Mass lottery, and the response is, "Sweet, let's play." But when the NFL does it the stakes are higher, and everyone from NPR's Frank Deford to the Associated Press to the guys blogging at Deadspin will line up to play gotcha.

So I asked Aiello, who surely knew there'd be piling on, how the league can rail against being bait for sports bettors, then allow its franchises to be just that for lotteries, the most insidious and addictive form of gambling around. He emailed me this response: "We are not moral crusaders. NFL personnel are permitted to engage in legal forms of gambling, except for betting on NFL games. We are making a distinction here between the spread of gambling on the outcome of our games and supporting state lottery scratch-off games, that have nothing to do with the outcome of our games."

Here's where I should rip him. But, the thing is, he's right. Not to get Obama on you, but this is a complicated, nuanced issue. As much as lotteries are considered a tax on the poor, the NFL isn't a socially obligated government program -- it's just a business. Scratch-off's help the bottom line, sports betting doesn't. Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors … But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal.

Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors. And it's okay to mutter something obscene when the league pretends gambling doesn't help drive TV ratings and fan interest and put money in owners' pockets. But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal. The Bears should put an orange "C" on every deck of cards dealt at Harrah's in Joliet; the Eagles should slap their logo on roulette wheels at the Borgata in Atlantic City; the Dolphins should hold training camp at the El San Juan in Puerto Rico.

Seriously.

The NFL's problem, when it comes to the gambling world, isn't hypocrisy, it's worse: The bosses lack vision. That's why the league is picking unwinnable fights in Delaware and taking pot shots from critics after making smart sponsorship deals. Roger Goodell and his gang are acting and thinking locally rather than globally, which is rare for them, especially compared to their professional (and amateur) counterparts.

The NBA held its All Star game in Las Vegas and David Stern's kingdom didn't crumble (although the town did bring plenty of players to their knees.) I'd say it's 6 to 5 and pick 'em that Lebron will make a road swing through Sin City before his career is over.

Even the NCAA College Football Betting is more progressive on this issue than the NFL. Several years ago Rachel Newman Baker, college sports' gambling czar, opened a dialogue with Vegas bookmakers to learn about how they do business. She's visited Nevada sports books, studied their operations and listened to how they regulate action. Now she knows she can expect a call from bookmakers, who lose money when sports are fixed, if they think something sketchy is going on in NCAA games. She's not in favor of sports betting, but, as she once told me, "I know it's not going away, either."

The NFL can't seem to accept that. And until it can find peace with the idea, it'll get flack, even when it's right.

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your Sportsbook accepts MasterCard needs.

Big 12 Conference betting odds

Work left to do: Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Kansas State

Texas joins Texas A&M and Kansas as locks after getting league win No. 11. Texas Tech greatly helped its own hopes and crippled OK State's with the two-point win Saturday. Is K-State the last reasonable hopeful? Could be an elimination match in Stillwater on Tuesday, at least for the Cowboys.

Work left to do:

Texas Tech [18-11 (7-7), RPI: 44, SOS: 12] A critical two-point win over OK State leaves the Red Raiders with Baylor and at Iowa State left. Get both and the Red Raiders likely are good to go. Get one and there could be some interesting comparisons with a K-State team that could finish two or three games "ahead" of them in the standings but doesn't have any of the quality wins Texas Tech has. Not a lot in nonconference play (against Arkansas in Little Rock being the best win, by far) to lean on.

Oklahoma State [18-9 (5-8), RPI: 50, SOS: 35] Still without a road win, the Cowboys now need to win two on the road just to get to .500 in conference play. It's hard to recall a team (OK, other than Clemson) falling so precipitously from lock status to almost certainly out of the NCAAs at this point. There are wins to be had in the last three, including a very big home game against K-State on Tuesday, but this team is reeling. Can you tell the pressure to win is getting to them with the way the final possession played out at Texas Tech? There are some good nonconference performances to lean on, specifically beating Missouri State and Syracuse on neutral floors and Pitt in OK City, but if the Pokes don't right this very, very soon, that won't be enough.

Kansas State [20-9 (9-5), RPI: 56, SOS: 96] It pays to be in the Big 12 North. The nine league wins are Colorado (twice), Missouri (twice), Iowa State (twice), Baylor, Nebraska and (a good one against) Texas. That helps explain the middling computer profile. The win over USC is nice, but the nonconference leaves a lot to be desired. The game at OK State in Stillwater on Tuesday is huge, as it could KO the Cowboys and leave K-State with a home date against Oklahoma with which to work.