Flyers try to continue mastery of Isles

Hockey Betting Lines

03/09/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Philadelphia Flyers will be attempting to extend their current home winning streak in tonight's matchup with a New York Islanders team they've dominated over the past few seasons from the Wachovia Center.

The Flyers have won four straight and 10 of their last 12 outings on home ice and began a four-game residency with Sunday's 3-1 decision over Toronto. Goaltender Michael Leighton stopped 27-of-28 shots in a strong effort between the pipes, while Danny Briere, Simon Gagne and Jeff Carter all scored goals to help Philadelphia halt a two-game losing streak.

Carter gave the Flyers a 1-0 lead with a power-play tally in the first period, while Gagne and Briere lit the lamp just 1:16 apart late in the second to halt a 1-1 tie. Leighton made the lead stand by making 10 saves over the final 20 minutes.

"The game wasn't pretty," said defenseman Chris Pronger, who contributed two assists on the night. "I don't know if it was a byproduct of the style that Toronto plays or a product of how we play. We rebounded in the second period. It wasn't looking very pretty the first 15 minutes, then we kind of got our legs underneath us and got going."

Mike Richards had an assist on Carter's goal and has notched at least one point in five consecutive games, with the Flyers captain compiling three goals and five assists during that span.

Philadelphia, now 19-11-2 at the Wachovia Center for the season, will also be trying to keep another impressive streak intact this evening. The Flyers have defeated the Islanders 14 straight times, the longest active stretch of victories over any single opponent in the NHL, with four of those wins having taken place in 2009-10.

New York hasn't downed Philadelphia since a 4-3 verdict at Nassau Coliseum on February 12, 2008. The Islanders' most recent triumph in the City of Brotherly Love occurred on April 7, 2007, with the club having dropped its last nine meetings as the visitor in this one-sided series.

In addition, the Islanders enter tonight's clash on a seven-game road losing streak following Thursday's 6-3 setback at Atlanta. New York followed up that performance with a 3-2 home defeat to Boston on Saturday, the team's 11th loss in its last 14 overall tests.

The Islanders outshot the Bruins by a 39-34 margin for the game, but only Josh Bailey and Matt Moulson were able to sneak the puck past Boston's Tim Thomas. Moulson's goal gave him a point in five consecutive games (2 goals, 3 assists) and was his team-best 23rd of the season.

New York fell despite a solid showing from veteran netminder Dwayne Roloson, with the 40-year-old coming through with 31 saves in a losing cause.

"We always play with a lot of energy and because of that, we had a lot of mental mistakes," said Islanders head coach Scott Gordon of the game. "It's not a physical thing. If you can skate from line to line and avoid a defenseman and then try to avoid finishing a check, it's not following through [and] you're taking the easy way out."

The Islanders' rough recent stretch has placed them 14th out of 15 Eastern Conference teams with 60 points. Philadelphia presently stands sixth in the East with 72 points, two better than seventh-place Montreal.

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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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