Sabres visit Rangers seeking to stop road slide

Hockey Betting Lines

03/07/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Buffalo Sabres hope to put their road woes to an end when the Northeast Division co-leaders pay a visit to historic Madison Square Garden tonight for a matchup with the New York Rangers.

Buffalo heads to the Big Apple having dropped eight straight games as the visitor, with six of those defeats coming in regulation. That matches the longest road losing streak in the franchise's 39 seasons of existence, an 0-5-3 stretch during the 2007-08 campaign.

The Sabres, who are still a respectable 14-12-3 away from home for the season, had also lost eight times in a stretch of nine overall games before downing Philadelphia in overtime on Friday. Tim Connolly scored 2:31 into the extra session to give Buffalo a much-needed 3-2 victory.

Buffalo trailed 2-1 in the third period before Adam Mair scored with 5:58 remaining in regulation. Connolly later put the Sabres ahead to stay when he banked home a rebound of Toni Lydman's shot from the point midway through the extra session.

Both Connolly and Adam Mair finished with a goal and an assist for Buffalo, with Thomas Vanek also lighting the lamp for his 300th career point. Goaltender and United States Olympic hero Ryan Miller did his part as well, stopping 27-of-29 Philadelphia shots on the evening.

"We made improvements in some areas," said Buffalo head coach Lindy Ruff. "We missed a couple great opportunities you wished you put in the back of the net."

The win briefly gave Buffalo a one-point edge on Ottawa for first place in the Northeast, but the Senators pulled even following last night's overtime loss to Toronto.

The Rangers come back home after being shut out by NHL-leading Washington on Saturday, when Capitals goaltender Jose Theodore turned aside all 30 shots he faced to lead his club to a 2-0 verdict.

Alex Auld, claimed by New York off waivers from Dallas earlier this week, made his first start in goal for his new team and ended with 26 saves.

"Coming into a game against this team you're expecting a lot of shots," said Auld. "But I thought we did a good job tonight and it's just unfortunate that we came out on the wrong end."

The Rangers did have leading scorer Marian Gaborik back in the lineup last night, although the star sniper wasn't a factor in his return from a two-game absence due to a groin injury he sustained while competing for Slovakia in the Olympics. Regular netminder Henrik Lundqvist, who racked up a career-high 50 saves in New York's 5-4 overtime loss to Pittsburgh on Thursday, is expected to be back between the pipes after getting Saturday's game off.

The Blueshirts have dropped two in a row following a three-game win streak and sit in a ninth-place tie in the Eastern Conference standings with 66 points, two behind Montreal for the eighth and final playoff seed.

These teams have split two previous meetings this season, with the Sabres earning a 3-2 decision at Madison Square Garden on December 12 behind a 36- save performance from Miller. Buffalo has prevailed in four of the last six overall bouts in the series.

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College Football Betting Tips From a Pro

While the NFL is the sport wagered on the heaviest, college football betting lines has become more and more popular as people realize it’s a game that can be beat. The NCAA football season gets longer each year with the addition of numerous bowl games and with that comes more opportunities for more money in your pocket, if handled correctly.

Betting on college football is not the same as with the NFL, so make sure you separate the two. Because of the vast number of teams, the parity between college football programs is slight and thus, you are going to see some high numbers in the NCAA. Teams favored by more than 40 points are not uncommon especially early in the season when teams playing their non-conference schedules.

The best advice when trying to tackle these enormous spreads and is to just stay away. A team that is favored by 40 points is favored by that many for a reason while teams getting 40 points are bad enough that they shouldn’t be touched. Set yourself a spread limit. Getting rid of these games will cut down on the number of contests that you need to handicap while staying away from backdoor or front-door covers.

What is a backdoor and front-door cover you ask? A backdoor cover is a team that is getting beat by more than the spread, but scores late to get within that number thus covering the spread. A front-door cover is just the opposite where the favorite scores late and covers the number they are favored by.

These front-door and backdoor covers are common when second and third string players enter games in college football and it can be the worst nightmare for some bettors. These players can also be your best friend, but ask any bettor and he will give you more instances on losing in this situation than winning. It just seems to work out that way even though everything evens out in the end.

College football betting has some of the softest lines of any sport and it’s being able to find these lines that will make you a successful college football handicapper. The NFL and NBA have the tightest lines around and while those sports can be beat by looking at situations and systems, college football doesn’t quite work that way. It’s much more manual, but when done correctly, it’s much more gratifying as well.

Getting into the nuts and bolts of college football means looking at the many stats in order to beat the number. As opposed to pro football, college football is less dependent on situations and angles and more on certain statistics. Rushing offense and defense, pass efficiency offense and defense and turnover margins are huge. These are vital in the NFL, but even more so when it comes to college football.

Being able to run the ball in college football has always been a key factor in the overall success of a team. The same adage also goes for teams who have the ability to stop the run. Putting these two factors together can produce some positive results in a team’s record both straight up and against the spread. These numbers show huge differences in teams and the spread may not take those into effect, which is where the value comes into play.

Passing yardage numbers both for and against can be a misinterpreted statistic. However, pass efficiency has always been one of the best ways to look at a teams’ passing game ability both offensively and defensively. But is it really a true indication of how they perform? I wouldn’t say so since they are raw passing numbers with nothing else taken into consideration.

I use pass efficiency ratings when doing my handicapping but I adjust my numbers based on a number of factors including power ratings, strength of schedules, personnel and injuries. This gives a much better picture of a team’s ability to pass effectively and also being able to defend the pass. Tweaking pass efficiency stats instead of raw passing yards is the key.

Turnovers are the single most frustrating, and at times the most gratifying, aspect of a college football lines, mostly because they are so unpredictable. They are part of the game and most of the time nothing can be done to control them. However, turnovers are contagious and they can carry over from game to game and season to season.

It’s important to know how to forecast these unforeseen events and how to use them to your advantage. You can find ways to give yourself an edge by looking at past histories of teams and coaches and how they have fared in turnover wars in the past. Instead of turnovers hurting you at the wrong times, find ways to use them to your advantage.

As you can see, college football handicapping is very labor intensive and isn’t just based on where teams are ranked in the AP and coaches polls. Experience, coaching and match-ups are all important since unlike the NFL, college teams turn over much more often with new personnel at most positions every single year. Keeping current on this information is vital.

Betting NCAA football can be lucrative if done correctly, but more importantly, it’s just plain enjoyable because it can be beat. College football is one of the best sports to watch with some of the best rivalries taking place in all of sports. The only downfall is that a championship isn’t decided on the field but on a computer-based system that is the Bowl Championship Series. That will change someday and we will all be better off for it.

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your NCAA college football betting needs. Mysportsbook.com online sportsbook accepts Visa and Mastercard credit cards.