Slumping Devils attempt to rebound against hard-luck Oilers

Hockey Betting Lines

03/07/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The New Jersey Devils conclude a string of four consecutive road games with tonight's matchup with an Edmonton Oilers team that'll be gunning for a rare winning streak.

New Jersey has gone just 1-2-0 thus far on the stretch, which began with a 5-2 defeat at Carolina on February 13 before the NHL ceased operations for the Winter Olympics. The Devils came out strong in their first outing after the break and delivered a 4-3 decision over Pacific Division leader San Jose on Tuesday, but had a shakier showing in a 5-3 loss at Calgary on Friday.

The Flames erased an early 1-0 deficit by scoring three times in the second period, then tacked on two more goals to begin the third to build a commanding 5-1 lead. All five tallies came against Martin Brodeur, with the legendary New Jersey netminder managing just 20 saves on 25 shots for the night.

"It's a game that we knew how (Calgary) would play," Devils head coach Jacques Lemaire said. "This is their game. It's a hard-working team, and you have to work harder. That's all."

Zach Parise accounted for two of the Devils' goals, with both coming off feeds from Travis Zajac, who extended his point streak to six games (3 goals, 6 assists) with the two helpers.

The loss was the ninth in the past 13 games (4-7-2) for New Jersey, which has fallen out of first place in the Atlantic Division with that poor stretch. The Devils enter today's play trailing Pittsburgh by three points for the division's top spot and own a two-point edge on Ottawa for the fourth playoff seed in the Eastern Conference.

New Jersey figures to have a chance to get back into the win column this evening, considering the Oilers have the NHL's worst record at 20-38-6 and have dropped 20 of their last 24 games. Edmonton does enter tonight's tilt on a rare high note, though, after besting Minnesota in a shootout Friday at Rexall Place.

Mike Comrie scored the Oilers' lone regulation goal against the Wild, then gave his club a hard-fought 2-1 win by pushing a backhander past Minnesota's Nicklas Backstrom in the sixth round of the shootout.

"When you're battling hard and not getting the wins it's frustrating and they add up and for us," Comrie said afterward. "I think what we have to do is to continue to work hard. I don't think anybody is happy with the way the season has gone, and this organization is continuing to try and change the culture back to the pride of being an Edmonton Oiler."

Jeff Deslauriers also turned in a sharp performance in Saturday's win, with the Edmonton netminder stopping 28-of-29 shots prior to the shootout and thwarting four of the six Minnesota skaters in the deciding phase.

Since stringing together four straight wins from December 3-11, the Oilers have gone a woeful 5-25-2 and have recorded back-to-back victories just once during that brutal stretch, a pair of home triumphs over Carolina and Philadelphia from February 1-3.

Edmonton did come through with a 2-1 road win over the Devils last season, snapping a three-game losing streak in this series. New Jersey has gone unbeaten in its last six stops at Rexall Place, however, amassing five victories and a tie during that span.

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FOOTBALL BETTING LINES

NFL Football Sports Betting

Two playoff teams from 2007 take center stage on the NFL Network Sunday night in a Week 2 NFL betting match-up when the (0-1) New England Patriots betting head south to Florida for a contest with the (1-0) Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

New England HC Bill Belichick couldn’t care less about the way his team plays in the preseason. With a chance to tie last week’s game with the Baltimore Ravens betting, He elected to go for the two-point conversion and outright victory. The conversion failed, and the Pats ended up falling to the Ravens by a 16-15 final count.

New England rolled off twelve unanswered points to give it a chance at securing the victory, but it never threatened to cover the 3.5-point spread. NFL bettors saw this one coming, as they bet the Ravens down from +6 to +3.5 as the week progressed. QB Tom Brady didn’t take part in the Patriots first preseason clash, but could see action this weekend.

His three replacements all put up embarrassing numbers. They went a combined 17 for 33, and threw three interceptions and no touchdowns. The New England defense was encouraging, as they held the Ravens to 2/12 third down conversions and surrendered just ten first downs. That ‘D’ should be bolstered with the addition of former Bucs and Denver Broncos betting safety John Lynch, who could make his Patriots debut on Sunday against his former mates.

HC Jon Gruden had to be impressed with the way his Bucs played on both sides of the ball in their dominating 17-6 victory over the Miami Dolphins in Week 1’s NFL pre-season betting action. Bucs bettors were quite happy with the effort, as they made a mockery of the fact that they were underdogs in the game.

The logjam at the quarterback position didn’t get any easier to separate for Gruden, as all four of his QBs had positive experiences in the first exhibition of 2008. The four combined to complete 28 of their 40 passes for 204 yards and a touchdown, and that was without starting QB Jeff Garcia in the lineup.

RB Michael Bennett had 19 carries and four receptions, totaling 90 yards and a touchdown. Expect to see more of Bennett, Kenneth Darby, and Earnest Graham, as they all compete for playing time with Warrick Dunn in the backfield this season. Defensively, the Bucs recorded four sacks and held the Fins offense in check all day.

First round draft pick Aqib Talib was impressive in the secondary, recording a tackle and two pass defenses in his debut. Don’t be surprised to see Talib in the starting lineup opposite Ronde Barber for the Bucs in ’08.

The betting trends suggest that NFL bettors should be backing the Bucs in this intra-conference exhibition.

These two teams hooked up last year in Tampa Bay, with the Bucs winning that game 13-10. The Buccaneers have only lost one preseason game at home dating back to the beginning of the ’05 preseason. The Patriots have had a mixed bag of results in their recent exhibitions. They have gone 2-2 ATS and SU each of the last three years.

New England currently sits as modest 1-point favorites in this preseason showdown with the ‘total’ now sitting at 34.5.

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