Blues wrap road trip versus Wild

Hockey Betting Lines

03/14/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The St. Louis Blues conclude a six-game road trip this evening that has kept them in the playoff race. They do so against one of the better home teams in the league, the Minnesota Wild, at Xcel Energy Center.

The Blues have won seven of their last eight games, a span that includes a 4-1-0 mark on their current road trip. That successful spurt has kept St. Louis in playoff discussions as it sits five points back of a playoff spot.

After failing to score in the first period of last night's game in Columbus, St. Louis lit the lamp three times in the second en route to a 5-1 triumph. Andy McDonald had a goal and two assists, while Chris Mason made 24 saves.

Alexander Steen, B.J. Crombeen, David Backes and David Perron also scored for the Blues, who are an impressive 20-10-4 as the road team this year.

"I think the difference in the game was the second period," Mason said. "I thought we had a great second period. We took the play to them with a lot of shots. We had some good shots on the goal there."

The Wild host the Blues two days after they halted a four-game losing streak (0-2-2) that included a 5-1 setback at Detroit on Thursday. Minnesota responded the next night, earning a 3-2 victory in Buffalo.

With Niklas Backstrom missing his second game in a row due to a groin injury, Josh Harding stopped a season-high 43 shots for his first win since Jan. 28.

"[Thursday's loss in Detroit] wasn't good. To a man I thought this team put forth a great effort tonight," said Harding. "Our team wins when the defenseman play well and it sets the tone for everyone else to play well."

Andrew Ebbett, Andrew Brunette and Guillaume Latendresse lit the lamp for the Wild, who are still 21-9-3 at home despite losses in four of their last five as the host. Minnesota, though, has fallen eight points back of Detroit for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference.

Backstrom is again questionable for tonight, meaning Harding should get the start. He is 3-2-0 with a 1.74 goals-against average in his career versus the Blues. Shane Hnidy (leg) and Brent Burns (hip) could also miss their third straight games tonight.

The Blues have won two of three over the Wild this year, including a 1-0 victory when the clubs last met on Jan. 14 in St. Louis. Mason posted a 19- save shutout in that one and is 5-4-2 with a 3.07 GAA in 11 career starts versus the Wild.

St. Louis has also won five of the last seven meetings in the series overall but has lost nine of its last 11 trips to Minnesota.

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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.

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