Avalanche aim to stop free fall against Sharks

Hockey Betting Lines

03/28/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Four losses in their last five games have the Avalanche slipping in the Western Conference standings. Colorado might catch a break if Joe Thornton is unable to play for the San Jose Sharks in tonight's matchup at HP Pavilion.

Colorado has slipped into eighth in the West thanks to its recent rut, though it does have a six-point edge over ninth-place Calgary with eight contests to play and a game in hand. The Avalanche also trail the Kings by just a single point for seventh overall.

The Avs dropped their third straight on the road last night, posting a 6-2 defeat at Phoenix. Kevin Porter scored his first goal of the season and Milan Hejduk also lit the lamp in the setback.

"We can't be giving up odd-man rushes as frequently as we have. It's something we have to address," Colorado head coach Joe Sacco said.

Porter was acquired from the Coyotes along with Peter Mueller at the trade deadline for Wojtek Wolski, who also scored against his former club last night for Phoenix. Mueller has five goals and 10 assists since the trade, but missed Saturday's game with a hip injury.

Craig Anderson allowed five goals on 31 shots on the same night he tied Patrick Roy's club record for most appearances by a netminder with 65. Anderson has also played in 3,870 minutes this season, breaking a club record also held by Roy.

The Avalanche remained six points back of the first-place Canucks in the Northwest Division race with a game in hand thanks to San Jose, which bested Vancouver, 4-2, Saturday night.

Patrick Marleau had a goal and three assists to help the Sharks win their third straight contest since a six-game slide that had knocked them out of first place in the Pacific Division. However, San Jose still leads Phoenix by two points after last night's win and is three up on Chicago for the top spot in the Western Conference.

Joe Pavelski, Dany Heatley and Ryane Clowe each had a goal for the Sharks and Evgeni Nabokov made 35 stops in the victory.

It wasn't all good for San Jose as Thornton left the game with 4:37 to play in the second period. The play-making center had to be helped into the locker room after getting pushed into the boards.

Thornton is second in the NHL with 66 assists and his status for this game is unknown.

"He's a durable player, but he's human. That's part of the game," Sharks head coach Todd McLellan said of Thornton. "When he's ready to go he'll be right back at it."

Manny Malhotra also left the game in the final minute of play after he was hit in the face with the puck.

San Jose has won the first two games of a three-game homestand, as well as five of its last six at HP Pavilion.

These two clubs have split a pair of meetings this year, with the Sharks winning, 3-1, in the lone matchup so far in San Jose. The Sharks have won five of their last six overall versus the Avs and three straight as the host.

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Betting the NFL preseason

Rule No. 1 in the gamblers' handbook states, "Avoid sports betting on meaningless games."

When you're drowning in a sea of baseball monotony, however, things change. Even a hint of pro football betting can persuade the most disciplined bettor to break a few rules. 

The NFL preseason is around the corner, with a tempting Hall of Fame match kicking off on Sunday. But bettors must stay vigilant. Wagering on NFL exhibition games is an entirely different beast than the regular season. Most fans don't recognize the players on the field because starters get as much action in August as Warcraft fans get on Prom night.

The only certainty about the NFL this time of year is uncertainty – and yet there are some who say betting in August can be a gold mine.

“I actually feel the NFL preseason presents solid profit opportunities for sharp bettors and handicappers,” Sports Expert Steve Merril explains. “My experience has been that the sportsbooks fear the preseason, which is evident by lower limits and massive moves.”

The line moves are attributed to the limited knowledge available regarding playing-time distribution. One team’s top unit out on the field for one more series has an impact on the pointspread. Setting lines in the preseason often is a shot in the dark.

“We base the betting lines mostly on public perception,” Pete Korner, founder of the Sports Club in Las Vegas, says. “It’s very tough to predict, almost a guessing game.”

The preseason is all about figuring out who’s in and for how long.

“It becomes a race between bettors and oddsmakers to find out how long the quarterbacks are going to stay in,” Korner admits. “If a sharp gets the information first, he could exploit an early line. I’m a full believer in moving the line in the preseason if the books find out something late in the week.”

Determining what each team’s motive is can help bettors handicap. To do this you must pay close attention to the philosophies head coaches employ in exhibition play.

“You need to know what a coach is trying to accomplish,” says Covers Expert Bryan Leonard. “Sometimes a new coach will want to instill a winning attitude. Others just want to make sure their starters don’t get hurt."

So how do you distinguish who’s playing scared and who’s playing for keeps?

“Head coaches on the hot seat or new coaches trying to implement a winning attitude usually try harder to win in the preseason,” Merril says.

Cleveland Browns head coach Romeo Crennel fits this criteria. He’s entering his third season as the sideline boss and has yet to lead the Browns to more than six wins.

Cleveland is an enticing bet as well because of the unresolved quarterback situation. General manager Phil Savage sacrificed the Browns’ first-round pick in next year’s draft for Brady Quinn, but the former Notre Dame quarterback hasn’t signed or reported to training camp yet.

Charlie Frye and Derek Anderson split time at QB last season and it looks like either player (or even Quinn) could be the opening-day starter.

“If a team has quarterback depth and the pecking order hasn’t been decided, it’s a big advantage,” Leonard says.

Even in the third week of the preseason when starters generally play the most, the final outcome of the game is in the hands of fringe players. A team's talent, all the way down to the last man on the roster, is something to consider.

The New England Patriots have long been considered one of the deeper teams in the NFL and coach Bill Belichick has said in the past he’s unafraid of stars getting hurt in games with nothing on the line. He shocked his colleagues in 2003 by playing some of his starters on special teams in the preseason.

“We want to have the team ready to play a tough, physical game and preparation has to go into that and I imagine a certain amount of injuries go with it,” Belichick told the Providence Journal in August 2003.

Bettors can only hope to find more teams that share the Pats' business-like approach to the preseason (New England is 17-9-3 against the spread since 2000) and take advantage of teams who detest the exhibition schedule.

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