Sharks to pay a visit to slumping Stars

Hockey Betting Lines

03/16/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The San Jose Sharks and Dallas Stars will meet three times before the end of March. That isn't likely to help Dallas' playoff chances.

The first of those three scheduled meetings takes place tonight, as Western Conference-leading San Jose tries to snap a two-game skid this evening at American Airlines Center versus a Dallas team that has lost six of seven since the Olympic break and will be without Mike Modano.

These two Pacific Division rivals have met three times so far this year, with the Stars winning the first two in shootouts at San Jose before the Sharks earned a 4-2 victory at Dallas on Dec. 21. San Jose is 6-1-2 in its last nine versus the Stars and has also won in four straight and eight of its last nine trips to Dallas.

The Sharks will host the Stars on March 25 before visiting Dallas in the final meeting of the regular season between the clubs six days later.

The Stars will need to figure out a way to beat the Sharks at American Airlines Center if they hope to reach the playoffs. Dallas is 1-5-1 over its last seven since the break and nine points back of a postseason spot in the Western Conference.

Dallas fell to 0-1-1 on a six-game homestand with Sunday's 5-3 setback to the Colorado Avalanche, also the club's fourth loss in a row as host.

Brandon Segal registered two goals and Jamie Benn also lit the lamp for the Stars, who outshot the Avs 51-22. However, Marty Turco allowed four goals on 18 shots before being replaced by Kari Lehtonen in the second period. Lehtonen stopped three of the four shots he encountered.

"Our guys battled hard today. There's nothing wrong with our effort," said Stars head coach Marc Crawford. "We've played extremely well. We haven't given up a lot. We just came up against a hot goaltender tonight, and he was the difference maker."

With Dallas losing its third straight overall, Crawford remained stuck on 499 victories in his coaching career. He won't have Modano on the ice tonight when he tries again for win No. 500, as the American-born skater underwent an appendectomy on Monday and is out indefinitely. The 39-year-old has 13 goals and 26 points in 54 games this year, upping his career totals to 556 goals and 1,355 points.

The Sharks come to town after losing a 4-2 test in Anaheim on Sunday, as San Jose failed to secure a season series sweep of the Ducks. San Jose also lost the opener of a six-game road trip after posting a 3-1-1 homestand.

Joe Thornton and Jamie McGinn provided the offense with third-period goals for the Sharks, who fell behind by three goals after the opening 20 minutes. Evgeni Nabokov made 29 saves in the setback.

"Overall we have to play 60 minutes, and that's the bottom line," Nabokov said. "I think what killed us is the odd-man rushes against us. If you are over-thinking the games when you're losing, I think that is worse. We just have to be more cautious about that, especially in the beginning of the game. We have to play smarter."

San Jose, which has lost three of its last four on the road, still has a two- point edge over Chicago for the top seed in the West and trails Washington by five points in the race for the Presidents' Trophy.

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2007 online football betting Preview

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.

2007 College Football Betting Preview

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.

Las Vegas Sports Lines

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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