Streaking Preds make a stop in St. Louis

Hockey Betting Lines

03/21/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The surging Nashville Predators will aim for a sixth straight victory when they visit the rival St. Louis Blues for tonight's Central Division battle at Scottrade Center.

The recent hot streak has helped solidify Nashville's playoff chances as the Predators enter Sunday with 87 points, tying them with Los Angeles for the fifth seed in the Western Conference. Nashville is still 10 points in back of Chicago for the Central lead with just 10 games left.

Meanwhile, St. Louis, which has won two straight, is six points behind Detroit for the conference's eighth and final postseason berth.

Nashville earned its fifth consecutive victory Saturday night, edging visiting Columbus in a defensive battle. Predators rookie defenseman Cody Franson scored 1:54 into overtime to lift the Preds to the 1-0 win at Bridgestone Arena.

In the extra session, Franson snapped a shot from the right point that squeezed through Columbus goaltender Steve Mason and trickled across the goal line.

Franson's tally came moments after Pekka Rinne robbed Blue Jackets veteran blueliner Mike Commodore with a nifty glove save. Rinne stopped 33 shots to record his second consecutive shutout and sixth of the season.

Rinne is riding a shutout streak of 132 minutes, 36 seconds and could get his sixth straight start today.

"(My consecutive shutouts) go hand-in-hand with the team," Rinne said. "I think the team's really playing well defensively. Early on, (Columbus) had some really good chances, but after that we really got it going."

The Predators have blanked opponents three times during their current five- game winning streak.

Tonight, Nashville will be without center Jason Arnott, who did not make the trip to St. Louis after sustaining an apparent head injury in Saturday's win. Arnott is tied for second on the team with 44 points this year.

The Preds are 20-14-3 as the visiting team this year and have won three of their last four road games.

St. Louis is back home after a successful two-game tour of the New York area. The Blues posted a 4-3 win over the Rangers on Thursday and blanked the New Jersey Devils, 1-0, on Saturday.

Ty Conklin made 29 saves to record his fourth shutout of the season in Saturday's victory over the Devils. Alexander Steen was the only player who found the back of the net, beating New Jersey goaltender Martin Brodeur late in the first period with a slap shot.

"It's amazing what he's able to do," Blues head coach Davis Payne said of Conklin. "You talk about being on the bench for a while and then all of a sudden getting thrown into the fire and being able to perform like that. It takes a guy with a great focus."

The win was the ninth in the last 12 games for St. Louis. However, the Blues are just 12-17-5 as the host this year and will close out March with four of five games on home ice.

The Predators have won two of three against St. Louis this year and have taken four of six overall in the series. Nashville also has won three straight and five of its last seven on the road against the Blues.

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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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