Crosby, Pens win battle of young stars

Hockey Betting Lines

02/18/2007 - Pittsburgh, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - In a battle of two of the game's top young stars, it was Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins getting the best of this installment, downing Alexander Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals 3-2 at Mellon Arena.

Crosby finished with only an assist and Ovechkin went without a point for a bit of an anticlimactic outcome to the anticipated duel.

Instead it was Mark Recchi, Evgeni Malkin and Maxime Talbot scoring for the red-hot Penguins, who have registered a point in 16 straight games and have won six in a row. Jocelyn Thibault made 29 saves in victory.

Richard Zednik and Alexander Semin had the goals for Washington, which has dropped three straight. Brent Johnson finished with 23 stops.

The home team established a 1-0 lead 5:59 into the contest, as Sergei Gonchar's shot from the point was redirected by Recchi in front before slipping past Johnson for the power-play tally.

Washington scored in similar fashion just over a minute later to even the contest. With his team on the attack, Jeff Schultz ripped a shot from the point that caromed off Zednik and in with 12:56 to play in the opening frame.

Pittsburgh, though, countered with two unanswered goals to gain command.

With time running down in the second stanza, Malkin flew behind the net and then dished the puck to Gonchar, who fed it right back to Malkin in the right circle. The rookie center finished off the sequence with a one-timer to give his team a 2-1 advantage.

The Penguins made it a two-goal game 1:10 into the third on a one-timer by Talbot from the left circle.

The Capitals had a great chance to climb within one when Semin drew a penalty shot with 5:56 to play after being taken down from behind, but his backhand attempt rang off the post.

He made amends with 44 seconds remaining and his goalie pulled, when the left winger tucked a shot through the five-hole from the slot to make it 3-2. Thibault, though, was able to keep the Capitals off the board the rest of the way.

Game Notes

The Penguins have been dominant at home as of late. The team has won eight in a row at the Igloo and own an 18-8-4 record as the host this season...Ovechkin edged out Crosby for last year's Calder Trophy honoring the NHL's top rookie...Pittsburgh has taken all three meetings with Washington this season and has won seven of the last eight games in this series.

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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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