Habs and Bruins square off as playoff hopefuls

Hockey Betting Lines

03/13/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Montreal Canadiens look to further their playoff chances and defeat Boston for the fifth time in six meetings this year tonight at the Bell Centre, while the Bruins hope to strengthen their hold on the Eastern Conference's final postseason spot.

It was the Bruins who won five of six versus the Canadiens last year en route to a 116-point season that gave them the top seed in the East. Montreal, meanwhile, snuck in as the eighth seed with 93 points but was then swept out of the first round by Boston.

The Habs, however, have won four of five this year in the series, including a pair of shootout victories. They recorded a 4-1 win in Boston when the teams last met on March 2 and have won nine of the last 12 played at Bell Centre in the series.

Montreal's Glen Metropolit had a goal and an assist in the most recent meeting to give him four goals and two assists in the five games this season. The 35- year-old has 15 goals on the year, his highest single-season total in eight NHL campaigns.

Montreal has won a season high-tying four straight games and Thursday's 5-4 shootout win over Edmonton moved the club into a tie with Philadelphia for the sixth spot in the East with 74 points. Boston is eighth and two points back.

Sergei Kostitsyn, Travis Moen, Tomas Plekanec and Brian Gionta all scored in regulation and Jaroslav Halak made 21 saves before stopping all five skaters he faced in the shootout. Montreal missed on its first four attempts before Andrei Kostitsyn's tally in the shootout's fifth round.

"We knew before the game that [the Oilers] had nothing to lose, and they wound up strong against us," Halak said. "It was crazy goals against us, but that happens. What counts is that we won the game."

The Canadiens have won six of their last eight at home and will try to win five straight overall for the first time since Oct. 11-20, 2008. They could opt to go with Carey Price in net since he is 3-0-0 with a 0.97 goals-against average versus the Bruins this year. Halak started the other two meetings, going 1-1-0 with a 2.40 GAA.

Montreal also figures to have Maxim Lapierre back tonight after he served the final contest of his four-game suspension on Thursday for a hit from behind on Scott Nichol of San Jose back on March 4.

The Bruins come into this game 7-2-1 in their last 10 contests and are three points up on the New York Rangers for the conference's last playoff spot. They also got their sputtering offense on track Thursday in a 5-1 triumph over the Flyers, marking just the third time since Jan. 1 that Boston scored more than three goals in a game.

"We try to create a lot of energy and bring a lot of emotions to our game," said Boston captain Zdeno Chara. "Making simple plays but important plays to establish a forecheck and put pressure on them."

Patrice Bergeron, moved to the first line due to an injury to Marc Savard, scored and added two assists. Savard is likely to miss the rest of the season due to a concussion suffered on a blind-side hit by Pittsburgh's Matt Cooke last Sunday.

Tuukka Rask made 31 saves and Marco Sturm, Blake Wheeler and David Krejci each posted a goal and an assist for the Bruins, who improved to 2-1-1 on a seven- game road trip while winning for the sixth time in their last eight games as the guest.

Rask made 36 saves in a 3-0 victory over Montreal at the Bell Centre on Feb. 7 and is 1-1-1 with a 1.76 GAA in four games (3 starts) versus the Habs this year. Tim Thomas is 0-1-1 with a 3.44 GAA in the other two starts.

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SPORTS BETTING - Tennis is an underrated and under-utilized bettors' sport.

Ten years ago, at just about this time, I called Alan Boston in Vegas and left him a voicemail that went something like this (abridged version): "Hey Alan, Chad Millman from ESPN The Magazine calling. I want to do a book about wise guys, you in?"

A couple weeks later I got a message back (abridged version): "I don't know, maybe," Boston said. "Call me and we'll talk about it. But not later today. I got $1,000 on Andre Agassi to win the French Open at 40-1, and he's in the finals."

Here's what happened next (abridged version): Agassi won his tourney. Boston won his $40,000. I wrote sportsbook.

In the ten years since, how much has been wagered on the big-time tennis events? Put it this way: The Nevada Gaming Commission doesn't even track the number year by year because it's so small.

"Tennis makes up about one-tenth of one percent of our take," says Lucky's bookmaking boss Jimmy Vaccaro. "The last big golf major we probably had $100,000 worth of bets. In tennis, we might have written two big tickets."

Tennis' lack of popularity amongst the American bettoratti is no surprise, really. For starters, the biggest sports betting holidays -- the Super Bowl, the NCAA tourney -- are must see TV. People, at least the degenerates I know, plan vacations around watching those events in Vegas sports books.

But Wimbledon? Doesn't exactly reel in the whales. "Seriously, it's the nuts as an event," says Boston. "But who even knows when it's on?"

Here's another reason that helps explain why golf gets traction, something I call "The Bubbe Theory." My Bubbe is pushing 95 and has cataracts so bad that, to her, even the most crystalline Chicago day is mostly cloudy. But she still listens to the Cubs games, and she still calls me in a fit if she disagrees with something Rick Telander writes in the Chicago Sun Times. She's a sports fan. If she doesn't know you, you're just filling a niche. And niche players, even historically good ones like Roger and Raf, don't drive betting volume. Only the highest profile names attract square money, which inflates wagering totals like a shot of saline to the lips. Bubbe, and the public, loved Agassi, tennis' last cross-the-rubicon, mainstream draw. She also has a crush on Tiger. She's given me standing orders to put a sawbuck on the big cat whenever I walk through a sports book (or mistakenly tap into one via my Internet machine.) That explains why the Masters is getting $100K in action at some books while the four tennis majors might not get that combined this year.

This isn't a case of tennis being a difficult sport to bet. In fact, in Europe, it's probably the second most popular sport for gambling after soccer. Granted, as the WSJ football betting last week and The Mag's Shaun Assael examined in even greater depth last year, that might be because gamblers across the pond see it as an easy game to fix. But it could also be because, over there it holds the kind of sway the big two do over here.

Street corners in Spain are peppered with public courts and kids doing their best Raffy impressions. In some war torn parts of Eastern Europe poverty-stricken kids view tennis as an escape route, like football or basketball here. A couple years ago The Mag's Lindsay Berra wrote a great piece about Belgrade's Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic. They learned the game as kids while bombs were raining down on their homeland. They practiced in drained swimming pools. Not exactly Nick Bolletierri conditions.

In the United States, casual fans think tennis is played four times a year. But on the tightly packed European continent, national interest in homegrown talent runs deep every weekend. Of the ATP's current top 20 players, only two, tennis betting and James Blake, are American. Fourteen are from Europe, representing six different countries.

No wonder fans from Lisbon to Bhudapest get jacked up for the net game, whether it's Wimbledon or a low-level tourney like the Estoril Open in Portugal (congrats to Spain's Albert Montanes for winning that one, btw). Chances are good that someone representing their flag will not only be playing, but have a shot at winning.

And that's all any bettor can ask for.

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