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12/20/2008 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Canadiens always try to make the Bell Centre a tough place to play at for their opponents, but that hasn't been the case as of late. Montreal will try to build off its most recent home win when it hosts the Buffalo Sabres tonight.
Montreal is an excellent 10-4-3 as the host them this year, but endured a bit of a rough patch on a recent franchise-long homestand. The Canadiens won the first three games of that stand, but closed it by going 1-2-1 and netted just one goal a game in each of the three losses.
That slide carried over into a road game versus Carolina, a 3-2 setback, but Montreal returned to the Bell Centre on Monday to begin a three-game homestand and knocked off the Philadelphia Flyers, 5-2.
Sergei Kostitsyn, Steve Begin and Guillaume Latendresse each posted a goal and an assist, while Alex Kovalev's goal marked his 900th career point. Matt D'Agostini also scored and Robert Lang donated two assists.
Defenseman Mike Komisarek returned from a 16-game absence due to a shoulder injury and notched an assist to help the Habs halt their three-game losing streak.
Montreal hopes that Kovalev can build on his milestone, as he has just seven goals and 17 assists in 31 games this year after posting 35 goals and 49 assists in 82 games a season ago. He has 24 tallies and 24 helpers in 71 career games versus Buffalo.
Jaroslav Halak made 29 saves and had been in net for each game of the Canadiens' recent skid, as Carey Price remains sidelined due to a lower-body injury that followed a bout with the flu. Price is day-to-day.
Halak won his only other career start versus Buffalo, making 22 saves in the win.
The Sabres, who have won three straight on the road, blanked the Los Angeles Kings in Buffalo by a 5-0 count on Friday. Ryan Miller recorded his third shutout of the season and 10th of his career by making 40 saves.
Derek Roy had a goal and two assists to give him four goals and eight helpers on an eight-game point streak, while Drew Stafford notched a goal and an assist. Adam Mair, Clarke MacArthur and Matt Ellis added goals for Buffalo, which has won two of three and five of its last seven games.
The NHL's leading goal scorer with 24, Thomas Vanek was held without a goal for a second straight game, but did have an assist. He has three goals in two games versus Montreal this year and 10 in his 26 all-time games against the club.
Buffalo is 7-5-2 on the road this season.
The Sabres and Canadiens have split two games this year, with both teams winning once on home ice. Montreal has won four of the last five in the series in addition to two straight and six of the last seven as the host.
<< Fourth-ranked Sooners meet Rams in Oklahoma City
Oklahoma City, OK (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The fourth-ranked Oklahoma Sooners will
attempt to avoid an upset tonight as they take on the Virginia Commonwealth
Rams in All-College Classic action from Oklahoma City's Ford Center.
VCU split its first
<< No. 21 Baylor entertains Texas-Arlington
Waco, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The 21st-ranked Baylor Bears and the Texas-
Arlington Mavericks will collide tonight in a non-conference clash at the
Ferrell Center in Waco.
Texas-Arlington is 3-47 all-time against Big 12 opponents, not exactly
<< Boilermakers and Wildcats mix it up in Indy
Indianapolis, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ranked foes will collide at Conseco
Fieldhouse in Indianapolis this afternoon, as the 13th-ranked Purdue
Boilermakers take on the 22nd-ranked Davidson Wildcats in the Wooden
Tradition.
Purdue opened the s
<< No. 15 Georgetown hosts Mount St. Mary's
Washington, D.C. (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The 15th-ranked Georgetown Hoyas have a
chance to improve their already impressive record today as they host Mount St.
Mary's in non-league action.
The Mount is 0-8 all-time against the Big East Conference
Penguins play host to Maple Leafs >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Pittsburgh Penguins will try to post consecutive
victories for the first time in over a month when they host the Toronto Maple
Leafs tonight at Mellon Arena.
The Penguins have won two of their last three games and rebo
Thrashers take on Lightning in matchup of struggling clubs >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The bottom two teams in the Southeast Division will meet
tonight in Atlanta, as the Thrashers host the Tampa Bay Lightning at Philips
Arena.
The Lightning are tied with the New York Islanders for last in the NHL with
just
Islanders try again for first win in December versus Preds >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The New York Islanders still haven't won a game in
December, something they will try to fix tonight in a road test versus the
Nashville Predators at the Sommet Center.
New York has gone 0-7-1 since defeating Ottawa to clos
Iowa State names Rhoads new head football coach >>
Ames, IA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Paul Rhoads was named the new head football coach
at Iowa State on Saturday morning, an ironic twist in the Iowa State-Auburn
coaching connection in the past week.
A 6:00 p.m. (et) news conference is schedul
Ten years ago, at just about this time, I called Alan Boston in Vegas and left him a voicemail that went something like this (abridged version): "Hey Alan, Chad Millman from ESPN The Magazine calling. I want to do a book about wise guys, you in?"
A couple weeks later I got a message back (abridged version): "I don't know, maybe," Boston said. "Call me and we'll talk about it. But not later today. I got $1,000 on Andre Agassi to win the French Open at 40-1, and he's in the finals."
Here's what happened next (abridged version): Agassi won his tourney. Boston won his $40,000. I wrote sportsbook.
In the ten years since, how much has been wagered on the big-time tennis events? Put it this way: The Nevada Gaming Commission doesn't even track the number year by year because it's so small.
"Tennis makes up about one-tenth of one percent of our take," says Lucky's bookmaking boss Jimmy Vaccaro. "The last big golf major we probably had $100,000 worth of bets. In tennis, we might have written two big tickets."
Tennis' lack of popularity amongst the American bettoratti is no surprise, really. For starters, the biggest sports betting holidays -- the Super Bowl, the NCAA tourney -- are must see TV. People, at least the degenerates I know, plan vacations around watching those events in Vegas sports books.
But Wimbledon? Doesn't exactly reel in the whales. "Seriously, it's the nuts as an event," says Boston. "But who even knows when it's on?"
Here's another reason that helps explain why golf gets traction, something I call "The Bubbe Theory." My Bubbe is pushing 95 and has cataracts so bad that, to her, even the most crystalline Chicago day is mostly cloudy. But she still listens to the Cubs games, and she still calls me in a fit if she disagrees with something Rick Telander writes in the Chicago Sun Times. She's a sports fan. If she doesn't know you, you're just filling a niche. And niche players, even historically good ones like Roger and Raf, don't drive betting volume. Only the highest profile names attract square money, which inflates wagering totals like a shot of saline to the lips. Bubbe, and the public, loved Agassi, tennis' last cross-the-rubicon, mainstream draw. She also has a crush on Tiger. She's given me standing orders to put a sawbuck on the big cat whenever I walk through a sports book (or mistakenly tap into one via my Internet machine.) That explains why the Masters is getting $100K in action at some books while the four tennis majors might not get that combined this year.
This isn't a case of tennis being a difficult sport to bet. In fact, in Europe, it's probably the second most popular sport for gambling after soccer. Granted, as the WSJ football betting last week and The Mag's Shaun Assael examined in even greater depth last year, that might be because gamblers across the pond see it as an easy game to fix. But it could also be because, over there it holds the kind of sway the big two do over here.
Street corners in Spain are peppered with public courts and kids doing their best Raffy impressions. In some war torn parts of Eastern Europe poverty-stricken kids view tennis as an escape route, like football or basketball here. A couple years ago The Mag's Lindsay Berra wrote a great piece about Belgrade's Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic. They learned the game as kids while bombs were raining down on their homeland. They practiced in drained swimming pools. Not exactly Nick Bolletierri conditions.
In the United States, casual fans think tennis is played four times a year. But on the tightly packed European continent, national interest in homegrown talent runs deep every weekend. Of the ATP's current top 20 players, only two, tennis betting and James Blake, are American. Fourteen are from Europe, representing six different countries.
No wonder fans from Lisbon to Bhudapest get jacked up for the net game, whether it's Wimbledon or a low-level tourney like the Estoril Open in Portugal (congrats to Spain's Albert Montanes for winning that one, btw). Chances are good that someone representing their flag will not only be playing, but have a shot at winning.
And that's all any bettor can ask for.
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