Avalanche seek rare successful trip to Vancouver

Hockey Betting Lines

02/04/2012 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The sliding Colorado Avalanche will try to post a rare win over the first-place Vancouver Canucks when the Northwest Division rivals meet this afternoon at the Pepsi Center in Denver.

Colorado has lost four straight -- all in regulation -- to match their longest skid of the season. The Avs also dropped four straight during an 0-3-1 skid from Nov. 2-8.

If recent history is any indication, the Avs are unlikely to end their slide today, as Vancouver has compiled an 11-0-2 mark in the last 13 meetings in this series. The Canucks have won the last three encounters and have outscored Colorado by a combined 9-0 margin in two matchups this season.

The Avs have also lost five of their last six home games against Vancouver, which currently holds a 10-point lead over Minnesota atop the Northwest standings.

The Canucks had a three-game winning streak snapped by the visiting Detroit Red Wings on Thursday, but the shootout defeat allowed Vancouver to extend its run of gaining at least a point to five in a row. The Canucks are 3-0-2 during that run and are 7-2-3 over their last 12 trips to the ice.

Vancouver pushed the Red Wings to overtime thanks to Mason Raymond's goal with 4:24 left in regulation, but the Canucks were denied two points after Pavel Datsyuk scored the winner in the shootout to lift Detroit to the 4-3 triumph. The victory pushed the Red Wings' lead over Vancouver for the No. 1 seed in the West to four points.

Raymond, Alexandre Burrows and Ryan Kesler all scored for the Canucks, while Roberto Luongo made 40 saves in the loss.

"We played good in the third and found a way to tie it up, get a point at least," said Luongo.

The shootout loss ended a six-game homestand (3-1-2) for Vancouver and the Canucks will begin a four-game road trip today. Alain Vigneault's club boasts a strong 16-9-1 record as the visiting team this season.

Meanwhile, Colorado began a four-game homestand on a down note on Thursday, as the Avs lost their fourth straight tilt overall in a 1-0 setback against Minnesota. The Avalanche fired 37 shots at Niklas Backstrom, including 17 in the third period alone, but were still denied a goal. The Wild's Greg Zanon notched the only score of the game in the first period and Backstrom made sure it held up for the win.

Jean-Sebastien Giguere made 20 saves for the Avalanche and he allowed Zanon to score on a floater from the point.

"That shot went through a bunch of guys and just found the back of the net," said Giguere about the goal. "Most of the times it hits someone, but what can you do."

Colorado is 14-13-0 as the home team this year and will also face Chicago and Carolina during this residency.

The Canucks played the last game without forward Chris Higgins due to flu-like symptoms and he is questionable for today's game. The Avalanche are still without star forward Matt Duchene, who is sidelined with a knee ailment.

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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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