01/30/2007 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Colorado Avalanche return home looking to cool off the scorching Nashville Predators, who bring the NHL's best record into the Pepsi Center this evening for a key intraconference showdown.
The Predators have been nearly unbeatable during the month of January, having won 10 of their last 11 games since a New Year's Day defeat to the Avalanche in the Music City. Nashville carries a four-game win streak into tonight's tilt and comes in off Saturday's 6-3 road triumph at St. Louis.
Steve Sullivan and Martin Erat each had two goals as the Predators won for a 14th consecutive time over the Blues. Jason Arnott added a goal and an assist, while Paul Kariya, David Legwand and Ryan Suter each finished with a pair of helpers in the victory.
Sullivan also had an assist and has notched a point in seven straight games, having compiled three goals and six assists during that stretch.
The Predators will be playing the third test of a four-game road trip which began with Friday's 3-1 victory at Chicago. Nashville is an impressive 18-9-0 as the visitor and has already matched a franchise record for road wins in a single season.
Colorado has dropped its first two contests following the All-Star break, including a 3-1 setback Sunday at Detroit. The Avs were outshot by a whopping 41-12 margin on the afternoon.
Paul Stastny had the lone goal for Colorado, which received a strong outing from goaltender Jose Theodore in a losing cause. The former Hart and Vezina Trophy winner recorded 38 saves to keep the Avalanche close.
The Avalanche did receive some bad news on Monday, when it was learned that veteran defenseman Patrice Brisebois will need season-ending surgery to repair a herniated disc in his back. The 36-year-old has not played since December 27 because of the injury.
Tonight's matchup begins a five-game homestand for Colorado, which currently trails Minnesota by four points for the final playoff position in the West. The Avs are 13-10-3 at the Pepsi Center thus far in 2006-07.
Colorado's New Year's Day win over the Predators ended a two-game losing streak in the series. Nashville has still taken seven of the last nine meetings between the teams, however, and is 4-1-1 (one tie) in its last six trips to Denver.
<< Toronto kicks off long trek in Carolina
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Toronto Maple Leafs will begin their longest road
trip of the season tonight, when they visit the Carolina Hurricanes at RBC
Center.
The Maple Leafs have won three of their last four games and were able to beat
the
<< Red Wings and Isles meet at the Coliseum
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Detroit Red Wings will make their first appearance at
Nassau Coliseum in more than three years tonight, when the Western Conference
powers visit the New York Islanders.
Detroit last played on Long Island on December 1
<< Slumping Sabres welcome Bruins
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The suddenly-slumping Buffalo Sabres will try to get back
on track this evening, when they host the Boston Bruins at HSBC Arena in the
opener of a home-and-home series.
The Sabres lead the Northeast Division and Eastern
<< Devils, Thrashers meet in key conference clash
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A pair of division leaders meet this evening in Atlanta,
as the Thrashers welcome the New Jersey Devils to Philips Arena.
The Devils lead the Atlantic Division with 65 points and Atlanta is first in
the Southeast with 64
Penguins put win streak on the line against Panthers >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Pittsburgh Penguins take aim at a fourth consecutive
victory when the high-scoring club opens a three-game homestand tonight with a
matchup against the Florida Panthers from Mellon Arena.
Pittsburgh got its second hal
Wild continue swing in St. Louis >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - After having their season-best four-game winning streak
halted on Saturday, St. Louis will try to get back on track when they host the
Minnesota Wild tonight at Scottrade Center.
Steve Sullivan scored two goals and added
Flames welcome Kings to town >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Calgary Flames kick off a four-game homestand this
evening, when they welcome the lowly Los Angeles Kings to Pengrowth
Saddledome.
The game will mark the first this season in a Flames uniform for Craig Conroy,
who Cal
Canucks get Jackets at home >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Columbus begins a three-game road trip with possibly a
different look in net tonight, as the Blue Jackets invade General Motors Place
to take on the Vancouver Canucks.
Backup netminder Ty Conklin will most likely be in net
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.
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.
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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