Devils, Stars collide in New Jersey
Hockey Betting Lines
10/22/2008 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The New Jersey Devils will try to continue their excellent start to the season when they welcome the Dallas Stars for an interconference battle at the Prudential Center.
The Devils have won four of five games (4-1-0) to begin their 2008-09 schedule and have won back-to-back contests since losing their only test of the season to the rival New York Rangers on October 13.
New Jersey's most recent triumph came in Washington, as Zach Parise notched the lone tally in the shootout to help the Devils notch a 4-3 decision over the Capitals at the Verizon Center.
Parise also had a goal and an assist in regulation and leads the club in both goals (3) and points (5) this season.
Petr Vrana and Andy Greene also scored in regulation and Martin Brodeur got his 542nd career win with 24 saves, moving him just nine victories behind Patrick Roy's NHL record of 551 wins. Brodeur is also just six shutouts away from tying Terry Sawchuk's NHL career mark of 103 blankings.
Brodeur will also be facing Dallas forward Sean Avery again after the two were involved in a controversial episode in the opening round of last year's playoffs.
Avery, who was playing for the Rangers at the time, planted himself in front of the net and began faceguarding the star netminder while waving his stick in front of Brodeur's face. There was no formal rule against the action, until the day after the incident, when NHL disciplinarian Colin Campbell placed that type of action under the umbrella of unsportsmanlike conduct. The new interpretation is now informally known as the "Sean Avery Rule".
The Devils lost the series to New York in five games and Avery departed Manhattan to sign with Dallas in the offseason.
New Jersey hasn't had a home contest since defeating the New York Islanders to open the season on October 10. Beginning with tonight's test, the Devils will play six of seven and 11 of their next 14 games in Newark.
The Stars were in action Monday night against the Rangers and posted a 2-1 victory thanks in part to Mike Modano, who scored the game-winning goal midway through the third.
Brenden Morrow picked up the other goal for the Stars, who won for the first time in their last three games. Brandon Crombeen and James Neal picked up the assists on the game-winning goal.
Marty Turco was superb in net, stopping 28-of-29 shots, including all 21 he faced in the second and third periods.
Jersey has taken five of the last seven meetings with Dallas, and the Stars have dropped three straight road tests against the Devils.
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SPORTS BETTING - Tennis is an underrated and under-utilized bettors' sport.
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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