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02/21/2007 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A pair of struggling teams meet this evening in the nation's capital, where the Washington Capitals host the San Jose Sharks at the Verizon Center.
The Capitals have dropped four games in a row, while the Sharks come into the matchup having lost their last three contests. San Jose hasn't lost four in a row since December 22-28, 2005.
Washington was in action Tuesday evening at the Bell Centre. The Canadiens posted a 5-3 victory, as Chris Higgins and Michael Ryder netted two goals apiece.
Jamie Heward finished with a goal and two assists while Brent Johnson came up with 27 saves for Washington, which is 12 points behind Carolina for the eighth and final postseason berth in the Eastern Conference.
Washington played its third straight game without starting goaltender Olaf Kolzig, who is sidelined indefinitely with a torn MCL in his left knee.
Caps star forward Alexander Ovechkin, who leads his team in goals (34) and assists (38), was held without a point once again in Tuesday's contest. The 21-year-old Russian has been scoreless in three straight games and has just one goal and one assist over his last eight contests.
Starting this evening, the Caps will play five of their next six games on home ice. Washington is 14-12-4 as the host this year.
Meanwhile, the Sharks haven't played since losing an important test in Dallas on Sunday. Mike Ribeiro and Jere Lehtinen both scored a pair of goals to lift the Stars to a 5-2 triumph at the American Airlines Center.
The Sharks and Stars are tied for fifth place in the Western Conference standings with 73 points apiece. The teams are also seven points behind Anaheim for the top spot in the Pacific Division.
Mark Bell and Mike Grier scored Sunday for the Sharks, while Evgeni Nabokov stopped 16 shots.
San Jose captain and leading scorer Patrick Marleau is questionable for tonight's game after missing Tuesday's practice with an illness. Marleau has 29 goals and 35 assists on the season.
The Sharks are expected to have forward Curtis Brown back in the lineup tonight after he missed the last two games due to the birth of his third son. Brown has seven goals and eight assists this year and is key component of San Jose's penalty-killing unit.
Tonight marks the sixth test of an eight-game road trip for San Jose, which is 2-3-0 so far on the swing and 18-11-0 as the visiting club this season.
This evening's game between the Sharks and Capitals marks the only time this season the clubs will meet. San Jose has dominated the series in recent years, winning nine straight overall matchups and five in a row at Washington.
<< Kings edge Celts
Sacramento, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Kevin Martin scored 22 points as the Kings
held off a late Boston rally to beat the Celtics, 104-101, and continued their
domination in the series.
Ron Artest contributed 18 points, eight rebounds a
<< Sedin leads Canucks past Ducks in OT
Anaheim, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Daniel Sedin scored 2:19 into overtime, as the
Vancouver Canucks won their fifth straight game with a 3-2 decision over the
Anaheim Ducks at the Honda Center.
Kevin Bieksa and Markus Naslund also scored fo
<< Happy Returns: Nash leads Phoenix over Clips
Los Angeles, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Steve Nash scored 13 points and dished out
12 assists before spending a large chunk of the second half enjoying his
return to the lineup from the bench, as Phoenix cruised from the outset in a
115-90
<< Billups leads Pistons past Bucks
Milwaukee, WI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Chauncey Billups scored 19 points, as the
Detroit Pistons held on for an 84-83 win over the Milwaukee Bucks.
Milwaukee's Mo Williams missed a driving layup in the final seconds of
regulation, and
Red-hot Cavs take on Hurricanes in Sunshine State >>
Coral Gables, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A set of teams at completely different
ends of the ACC standings collide at the BankUnited Center tonight, as
the 24th-ranked Virginia Cavaliers take on the Miami-Florida Hurricanes.
The C
Tide rolls into Knoxville >>
Knoxville, TN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The 25th-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide and
Tennessee Volunteers will do battle in an SEC contest tonight in
Knoxville.
Alabama carried a two-game losing skid into Saturday's game a
Hoyas take on Bearcats in the Queen City >>
Cincinnati, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The 12th-ranked Georgetown Hoyas are
one of the nation's hottest teams, and they will attempt to extend
their winning streak to 10 games as they take on the Cincinnati Bearcats
in a
Tar Heels and Wolfpack meet in Chapel Hill >>
Chapel Hill, NC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The fifth-ranked North Carolina Tar
Heels will have revenge on their minds as they host the NC State
Wolfpack tonight in an ACC clash.
These two teams met on February 3rd, and NC Sta
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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