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Stars shoot for rare win in BuffaloHockey Betting Lines03/10/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - After losing its first three games after the Winter Olympics, Dallas is coming off a victory that could very well turn its luck around. Now all it has to do is pick up its first victory at Buffalo in over 12 years. The Stars shoot for that rare victory tonight at HSBC Arena versus the Sabres, who are aiming to win three in a row overall for the first time in over two months. Dallas was outscored 17-5 over its post-Olympic slide and was facing the highest-scoring team in the league on Monday in Washington. Things didn't look good when the Stars found themselves down 2-0 after two periods and outshot 42-16. However, the Stars scored three times in the third frame, and though they allowed the game-tying goal late in the third they still escaped with a 4-3 shootout win over the Capitals. Brad Richards and Trevor Daley scored on the power play early in the third before James Neal gave Dallas its first lead in the frame. Though Marty Turco surrendered the game-tying goal to Alex Ovechkin with 3:16 left in the third, he ended with a career-high 49 saves and stopped four-of-five skaters in the shootout. Richards and Loui Eriksson scored in the shootout, with Eriksson getting the game-winner in the fifth round. "I don't care if I see one shot cause it's all about the win", said Turco. "We made some great plays tonight to have a chance in the third period and the guys came through, especially on the power play. This was a big win for us and now we can use it to turn things around." Dallas, which won for the third time in its last four road games and ends a three-game swing tonight, come into this game five points back of a playoff spot in the Western Conference. If the Stars want to close that gap, they will need to earn their first victory in western New York since October 7, 1997. They have four losses and a tie in four trips there since. The Stars have also lost four straight overall to the Sabres, including a 5-4 shootout setback in Dallas last season. Turco made 31 saves for Dallas, which hasn't beaten Buffalo since March 31, 2003. Ryan Miller posted 21 saves in that victory and he has guided the Sabres to consecutive overtime victories. That has Buffalo in position to win three in a row for the first time since a six-game burst from December 27-January 8. Miller is 2-1-0 with a 1.64 goals-against average in three starts since leading the U.S. to a silver medal in the Winter Olympics. He made 27 saves in a 3-2 win over Philadelphia on Friday, then stopped 35 shots two days later in a 2-1 triumph versus the New York Rangers. Adam Mair scored in regulation and Patrick Kaleta had the game-winner 2:22 into OT, upping his career-high goal total to nine. The victory snapped an eight-game road losing streak (0-6-2) and was the club's second straight since a 1-6-2 stretch. "It was a good game," Kaleta said. "I thought we skated hard and had some desperation." The Sabres are tied with the Senators for first place in the Northeast Division thanks to their recent struggles.
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FOOTBALL BETTING : Crabtree's base deal: six years, $32 millionIn the wake of the news that the 49ers have signed receiver Michael Crabtree after an extended holdout, there has been not a hint of the dollars to be paid to Crabtree. And since this means that his agent hasn't leaked the numbers, it means that his agent feels no specific motivation to do so. Possibly because his agent isn't all that thrilled to have his name on the deal. So the numbers will come from sources other than Crabtree's agent. And we've gotten our mitts into them. Per a league source, Crabtree has signed a six-year, $32 million contract. (The total includes guaranteed money, base salaries, and the one-time incentive based on achieving minimum playing time.) The deal also includes $17 million in guaranteed money. As reported elsewhere, the deal can void to five years based on performance triggers, wiping out a final year base salary of $4 million. But they won't be easily reached. The source tells us that, in his first four seasons (including 2009), Crabtree must either qualify for two Pro Bowls, or he must qualify for one Pro Bowl in one year and he must participate in 80 percent of the offensive snaps in a separate year in which the team makes the playoffs. In other words, if in 2010 he qualifies for the Pro Bowl and the team makes the playoffs and he participates in 80 percent of the snaps, he'll still need to make it to the Pro Bowl or achieve the 80-percent/playoffs in another season. Since the chances of Crabtree making the Pro Bowl or participating in 80 percent of the offensive snaps this year is roughly zero percent, he'll have three years to get it done. And it won't be easy. Frankly, he'll be hard pressed to make it to one Pro Bowl in three years with the likes of Larry Fitzgerald, Calvin Johnson, Anquan Boldin, Steve Smith, the other Steve Smith, Hakeem Nicks, DeSean Jackson, Johnny Knox, Percy Harvin, Greg Jennings, Roddy White, T.J. Houshmandzadeh in the same conference for sportsbook betting. So, by all appearances, it's a six-year deal. And at $17 million in guaranteed money, the per-year guarantee is a tepid $2.83 million per year. There's another problem with the deal -- it has no mid-tier incentive package. Instead, the additional $8 million that Crabtree can earn (pushing the max value to six years, $40 million) requires the kind of unrealistic, mega-star performances that no rookie is likely to ever achieve. So while the contract paid to Packers defensive tackle B.J. Raji covers five years and pays $22.5 million, he has the ability (if he's a solid player) to make up the difference between his base deal and Crabtree's five-year, $28 million haul via the mid-tier incentive package in Raji's deal. And unless Crabtree meets the performance thresholds necessary to void the sixth year, he'll be stuck under contract for another year at a base salary of only $4 million. There's one other area of concern with the deal. Crabtree, per the source, received no option bonus. Instead, he has significant money tied to a fairly new device known as a "discretionary salary advance," which unlike an opition bonus is subject to forfeiture if Crabtree decides in a year or two that he wants to hold out for a better deal. (We're also told that the 49ers have included language that would make certain escalators subject to forfeiture, too.) Meanwhile, the deal falls well short of the mark for which Crabtree and agent Eugene Parker were aiming -- the five-year, $38.25 million contract paid by the Raiders to receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey, the seventh overall pick in the draft. Even if Crabtree successfully voids the final year, he'll make more than $2 million per year less on average than Heyward-Bey. Thus, as we explained earlier in the day, this is a deal that Crabtree could have done in July, which would have given him a much better chance of making a contribution to the 49ers during his rookie year. So while the final outcome can be described as win-win, the broader view suggests that it's really a lose-lose situation. To visit this sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your college football betting needs. |
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