Flames battle Stars in Big D
Hockey Betting Lines
02/16/2012 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Flames have been racking up points so far in February and their latest convincing victory has them within a point of a playoff spot.
Calgary puts a six-game point streak on the line this evening against the Dallas Stars.
The Flames are 4-0-2 this month and now sit second in the Northwest Division with 62 points. That still has them 16 points out of first place but only one back of eighth place Phoenix in the Western Conference standings.
Calgary rode a 41-save effort by Miikka Kiprusoff to a 5-1 win over visiting Toronto on Tuesday. The Flames goaltender notched the 302nd win of his career and is 9-3-2 in his past 14 starts.
"When you're in a dogfight like this and you're scratching and clawing for every point, it's nice to have Kipper," Flames head coach Brent Sutter said of his goaltender.
Calgary's top line of Olli Jokinen, Alex Tanguay and captain Jarome Iginla combined for seven points, with Tanguay leading the way with a goal and two assists. Jokinen scored and assisted on another to give him 13 points in his last 10 games, while Paul Byron scored on a penalty shot.
The Stars would love to swap places with the Flames. Dallas has lost three straight and 10 of its past 14 and sits three points behind Calgary in the standings.
The Stars became the latest victim of the Red Wings' record-breaking home win streak as they dropped a 3-1 decision in Detroit on Tuesday. It marked the 21st win in a row at home by the Red Wings, breaking the mark set by the 1929-30 Boston Bruins and later matched by the Philadelphia Flyers in 1975-76.
Dallas was nearly shut out on the milestone night before Adam Burish scored with 32.8 seconds left. Kari Lehtonen made 34 saves.
"Sometimes you have to tip your cap to the other guys and tonight I'm tipping my cap to Detroit," said Burish, who ended a 10-game point drought. "They're pretty darn good, but I would have liked to be the team to snap it."
The Stars and Flames are meeting for the first time this season after Calgary swept the four-game set last year. The Flames won both of their trips to Dallas in a shootout.
These clubs will play each other three more times next month, including a home-and-home set on March 24 and 26.
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Football Betting Sportsbook Accepts Credit Cards
Michael Vick is back, Brett Favre isn't and the NFC East remains the best division in the NFC, maybe in all of football.
As players start to gather for the start of another season, some things change and some stay the same in the world of the NFL.
The NFC East has been the dominant division in the National Conference for a while, despite limited playoff success, save for the New York Giants surprise Super Bowl win two seasons ago.
Hell, there's a generation of kids in Texas who have never seen the Cowboys win a playoff game (last win was in 1996).
But collectively, the Giants, Eagles, Cowboys and Redskins (well, maybe not so much the Redskins) are as good as a division gets in an NFC conference that has struggled to stay competitive with the AFC side.
Sports bettors have both acknowledged the NFC East's dominance, as one glance at the NFL future odds menu will show.
Looking over the NFL betting odds at online sports book MySportsbook.com we see the top three teams listed to win the NFC Championship are all from the NFC East:
Dallas Cowboys - 7 - 1
Philadelphia Eagles - 13 - 2
New York Giants - 9 - 2
Slotting in behind these three are two teams from the NFC North: the Minnesota Vikings (15-2) and the Chicago Bears (10-1).
Again, despite the lack of recent playoff success, the Dallas Cowboys are popular with the sports betting community, as they hold 14% of all the money wagered on who will win the NFC Championship.
So far, the New York Giants are the bettors' favorite to represent their conference in the Super Bowl, as they have 24% of the overall NFC Championship betting volume.
And what about the Philadelphia Eagles? For the most part, the Eagles had a very productive offseason, the kind that could bring them back to the top.
They had a good draft adding the likes of WR Jeremy Maclin and RB LeSean McCoy.
Unfortunately, the team received a blow when long-time defensive coordinator Jim Johnson passed away on Tuesday.
But this team will make a real run at the division title this year. Going into the regular season, Philly is listed at +240 to win the division.
Last season the Eagles were 9-6-1 SU and 10-6 ATS.
Teams from the NFC East will play teams from the AFC West in the regular season and the Eagles haven't really been a good bet in the last 20 games against the likes of San Diego, Oakland, K.C. and Denver, only going 8-12 ATS.
Two seasons removed from that Super Bowl title, the New York Giants see themselves listed as the odds-on favorite in NFC East championship futures at +162.
Plaxico Burress is gone and with him all the bad publicity surrounding the gun in the sweatpants incident, but can they replace him in the offense?
Last season the Giants were a very reliable bet going 12-4 ATS.
In the Giants' last 20 games against fellow teams from the NFC East; they are 13-7 ATS.
Dallas is listed at +240 to win the division.
Dallas went 9-7 SU and 7-9 ATS last season and with the amount of talent the Cowboys have, a similar performance won't do.
The Cowboys have been atrocious against divisional rivals, going 6-14 ATS in their last 20.
The Washington Redskins are longshots to win the division at +550.
Visit MySportsbook.com for free sportsbook odds RSS feeds go to MySportsbook.com for all your betting football needs.