Islanders finally beat Flyers at home; Lalime wins season debut

Hockey Betting Lines

02/08/2007 -

Patrick Lalime's long-awaited Chicago debut was a successful one for the Blackhawks and fellow goalie Rick DiPietro made sure the New York Islanders finally had some success at home against the Philadelphia Flyers.

DiPietro made 27 saves in his fifth shutout of the season and the Islanders beat the Flyers 2-0 Wednesday night, New York's first win at home against Philadelphia since last March 4.

The Islanders played a sound defensive game and didn't give the Flyers many chances to score or much hope they could escape Long Island with another win. Viktor Kozlov scored in the first period and Miroslav Satan doubled the lead in the second. That was enough to break the Islanders' four-game, home losing streak to the Flyers - 14-4-1-1 in their past 20 trips to Long Island.

``They're struggling but they're still a very good team,'' Kozlov said of the Flyers (13-33-7). ``They've got very good players, so you cannot relax.''

Lalime stopped 34 shots in his first game since last April 1, lifting Chicago to a 3-0 win at Vancouver on Wednesday night. Lalime, who had knee surgery last summer and back surgery in early September, was 3-1 with a .930 save percentage during a recent conditioning stint with Norfolk of the AHL.

``I was a little nervous in the beginning but I tried to keep my mind off it,'' Lalime said after getting his first win since last May 13. ``It's been a while since I played a game, but we had some good practices.''

In other NHL games Wednesday night, it was: Buffalo 3, Ottawa 2; Detroit 4, Phoenix 2; and San Jose 3, Anaheim 2.

Midway through the second period in Uniondale, N.Y., Philadelphia's R.J. Umberger got free by the crease and took a perfect pass from Jeff Carter, but DiPietro's quick reflexes denied the redirect.

``I just tried to throw everything I had,'' DiPietro said after his 11th NHL shutout. ``I was just fortunate to get a piece of it.''

DiPietro, 4-0-2 in his past six starts, turned aside some challenging shots but wasn't really tested. The Islanders stretched their point streak to a season-high eight games (5-0-3) and moved within two points of Carolina, the eighth-place team in the Eastern Conference.

Knocking off the Flyers at Nassau Coliseum has turned into as tough a task as any for the Islanders. New York won both matchups in Philadelphia this season - where the Flyers have won only three times - but dropped two on home ice, joining Atlanta as the only teams to lose multiple games to them this season.

Simon Gagne posed some threats to DiPietro's shutout, yet couldn't turn pretty passes from Peter Forsberg into goals. He missed the net on several occasions in addition to a hard drive that nestled into DiPietro's midsection.

``You really have to tighten up this time of year when goals are tough to come by,'' DiPietro said. ``If you aren't going to score many, you can't give up many.''

At Vancouver, British Columbia, Adrian Aucoin scored the winning goal after a series of Canucks miscues late in the second period, and Radim Vrbata and Martin Havlat added empty-netters in the final minute to seal Chicago's fourth win in five games.

Blackhawks coach Denis Savard called it the best team effort of the season and Havlat said it was the best defensive performance of the year.

``We wanted to give Patty the win and help as much as we can,'' said Havlat, who played with Lalime in Ottawa. ``We did, but they had a couple of great chances too and he was unbelievable. I'm really happy to see him win after almost a year.''Sabres 3, Senators 2

Thomas Vanek scored twice, including the winner with 4 minutes left, for Buffalo.

Maxim Afinogenov also scored in helping the Sabres open a season-high six-game homestand with a win and end a four-game losing streak against their Northeast Division rivals. Backup goalie Martin Biron was sharp in making 28 saves.

Peter Schaefer and Dean McCammond scored for Ottawa, which dropped to 8-3-1 in its past 12.Red Wings 4, Coyotes 2

Henrik Zetterberg scored twice, including a go-ahead goal early in the third period that was the 100th of his career, to help Detroit get the win.

Robert Lang and Pavel Datsyuk also scored for the Red Wings, who have won five straight to pull within a point of Central Division-leading Nashville. Detroit has won 11 in a row at home - matching its longest winning streak in three years - and are 20-3-3 overall at Joe Louis Arena.

Owen Nolan and Shane Doan scored for Phoenix, which has lost four of six games.Sharks 3, Ducks 2

Jonathan Cheechoo had two goals, and Milan Michalek scored on a power play with 3:46 remaining to lift visiting San Jose.

Ryane Clowe assisted on all three Sharks goals, and Joe Thornton had two assists.

Vesa Toskala made 20 saves for the San Jose, which outshot Anaheim 13-4 in the third period.

Teemu Selanne and Shawn Thornton scored for the Ducks.

Copyright © 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.

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MySportsbook.com: New College Football Clock Rules Examined

Coaches and bettors alike are desperate to make sense of the new time-keeping rules on the NCAA gridiron. One of the big stories to come out of the Ohio State-Texas clash last weekend was Texas coach Mack Brown's criticism of the NCAA's new clock rules that are intended to shorten the duration of college football games, therefore affecting college football betting.

"They scored with six minutes left and the game was over before we had a chance to do anything," Brown told ESPN.com. "I really hope whoever made these changes will go back and look them over."

Sure, it might be sour grapes; the Buckeyes thoroughly trounced the defending national champion Longhorns 24-7. However, Brown isn't alone in giving the changes their due thought. Bettors are also wondering about them, albeit for a completely different reason. Most experts agree that the changes will result in games being shortened by anywhere from 10 to 20 plays. The obvious consequence is lower scores, with more time rolling off the clock during changes of possession. (The Ohio State-Texas game flew well under the total of 52.)

According to research at the online sportsbook MySportsbook.com, more than 18 plays a game disappeared last weekend into thin air. That's a 10-percent reduction. In 2005, a typical game had 168.58 plays. For 2007 already, it's down to 150.26.

As a result, teams combined to gain an average of about 100 fewer yards a game last weekend versus the 2005 openers. Scoring was also down by about 4.5 points (attention Las Vegas sports lines).

Of course, oddsmakers were able to adjust to the changes before the season started. Proof of that came as the over went a balanced 8-9 at My Sportsbook on Saturday.

Other angles to consider:A shorter game should theoretically result in shorter lines. Whereas Team A might have been a 14-point favorite in a 168-play game (last year), if there are 10 percent less snaps in 2007, the line should also be reduced by 10 percent (to 13 or 12.5). Of course, this is an over-simplification of the matter, but something to keep in mind.
Less possessions means a better chance the game will be decided by three or seven points. For example, what might have been a 20-10 final score in 2005 may end at

17-10 in 2007. Granted, a 24-17 game last year might end at 21-17 these days, but the former - a three- or seven-point advantage being preserved as opposed to created - is the most likely scenario.

*UPDATE* - Sept. 25, 2007

New Clock Rules Boon for online bookmakers

By adjusting the time-keeping rules to shorten the duration of college football games, the NCAA hoped to make its product more enjoyable for the fans. While the NCAA's success in this regard is still up for debate, bookmakers couldn't be happier with the results.

"We are seeing a massive jump in college football betting," noted the MySportsbook.com management team. "With all the early Saturday games (12 a.m. ET) ending before the second wave begins (3:30 p.m. ET) - something that didn't always happen before the changes - bettors are now able to re-invest their winnings from the morning session in the afternoon games."

While not all bettors will choose to roll over their winnings, it doesn't take much for an impact to be seen on the bottom line. "Not all of the millions of dollars in morning payouts get re-bet. In fact, it's probably only 10 to 20 percent," noted the sportsbook management team. "Still, the increased football betting lines window will create a ton of growth for us over the course of the season."

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Numerous College Basketball teams take final big step to March Madness betting

So, what turned on the lock spigot? Well, after what felt like weeks of teams treading water and slipping back into the bubble muck, a bunch of them finally decided to say "to heck with parity" and won games that should put them into the Big Dance.

Disagree with some of these? Then here's the challenge. Take all of the "should be ins" and make a legit case that each should be ahead of the team that's a lock. Then find 10 more teams that also should be placed in the bracket ahead of that lock team. Not so easy, is it?

If you want more evidence that these locks should be good to go, check out what our research department dug up. Since the NCAA Tournament went to 64 teams in 1985, only six teams from a "big six" conference have had a record of 10-6 or better in conference play and not been selected: Colorado (2004) and Nebraska (1999) from the Big 12, Boston College and Seton Hall (both 2003) from the Big East, Indiana (2005) from the Big Ten and UCLA, which somehow went 12-6 in the Pac-10 in 1988 and still missed out. (Note: Five teams went 11-7 and didn't get in, the latest being last season's Stanford team, which had a brutal nonconference run.)

Yes, 10 conference wins doesn't always mean what it used to because of unbalanced schedules, but this season, it should be plenty good in all but the extreme cases (see: Iowa).

In a way, this is a welcome development, because this is a bubble watch, not a lock watch. We can finally be done with teams like Maryland and Virginia Tech and start really bearing down on at-large battles such as Syracuse-West Virginia and Appalachian State-Georgia Tech.

Interestingly, all the shifting of teams into lock status appears to be more administrative than impactful. The number of remaining available at-larges didn't change one iota. The only difference is that teams on the bubble now have a clearer idea of which team(s) they are competing with for those precious bids.

The Bubble Breakdown
CONFERENCE LOCKS SHOULD BE INS AT-LARGES TAKEN
(assuming no auto bid outlier)
ACC Betting Odds 6 0 5
Big East Betting Odds 5 0 4
Big Ten Betting Odds 2 2 3
Big 12 Betting Odds 3 0 2
Pac-10 Betting Odds 5 1 5
SEC Betting Odds 4 0 3
MVC Betting Odds 1 1 1
MWC Betting Odds 2 1 2
TOTAL 28 5 25

As always, I've tried to be as inclusive as possible while only including teams that would have a reasonable chance of at least being discussed if this were Selection Sunday. If your team's not on here, there's probably a good reason (or three) -- start with the RPI and SOS numbers and work your way down.

(Please remember, per selection committee criteria, that records displayed are Division I only. Next update: Feb. 28)

If you have a legitimate grievance, or just like talking bubble, send an e-mail. Polite ones with fact-based arguments have a much better chance of receiving a response. I apologize in advance if I can't get back to all of you.

Atlantic Coast Conference

Work left to do: Clemson, Florida State, Georgia Tech

The ACC moves to six locks as BC, Va Tech and Virginia all got their 10th ACC wins, which should be more than enough this season, and Maryland rallied past North Carolina to get the final piece the Terps needed. After that? It could end there unless FSU, Ga Tech or Clemson picks things up in a hurry.

 

Work left to do:

Clemson [19-9 (5-9), RPI: 41, SOS: 42] The Tigers are closer to locking up the collapse of the year award (in a good battle with OK State) than they are to grabbing an at-large. Clemson's been very competitive, but there's no really positive way you can spin nine losses in 11 games. They now cannot get to .500 in ACC play and still must head to Virginia Tech in the season finale (after hosting Miami). Unless the Tigers win both and/or do some serious work in the ACC tourney, they very well could be left out. There are no great nonconference wins, but ODU, App State, Miss. State, South Carolina and Georgia are all respectable W's.

Florida State [18-11 (6-9), RPI: 48, SOS: 14] The Noles got thrashed at Maryland to run their losing streak to five, but then pounded NC State at home to set the table for what likely is an elimination game at Miami. You can at least make a case for the Seminoles at 7-9 in ACC play (and some work in the ACC tourney), but 6-10 is not going to cut it. Wins at Duke and over Florida will resonate, but the computer numbers remain questionable. Beyond Florida, FSU thrashed bubble buddy Providence, but there's not a ton beyond those two games that will help. They didn't show well in big-time opportunities against Pitt and Wisconsin (before the Florida win).

Georgia Tech [18-10 (6-8), RPI: 51, SOS: 46] The Jackets beat Wake on Wednesday but couldn't get it done at UVa on Saturday, which could be a crucial loss with UNC and BC (both at home) remaining and 8-8 almost a certain need for at-large consideration. A nonconference win over Memphis helps, but the RPI and SOS are not at-large quality right now; if you combine those with a sub-.500 ACC mark, that could spell NIT for GT.

For more College Basketball betting lines go to MySportsbook.com

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