Edmonton Joins Point Over Trip

Hockey Betting Lines

Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 20-of-21 shots for the Penguins, who have been held to one goal or fewer in five straight games.

 

The Panthers began a three-game homestand in their last trip to the ice and skated away with a 2-1 victory over Vancouver. Scott Clemmensen made 25 saves and Marcel Goc netted the game winner for Florida as Monday's victory over the Canucks improved the Panthers' record on home ice to 11-4-5.

 

Dmitry Kulikov notched the other goal for the Panthers, who snapped a two-game skid and won for just the third time in nine games (3-4-2).

 

The Panthers are currently playing without top goaltender Jose Theodore (right knee) and key forwards Sean Bergenheim (lower body), Jack Skille (shoulder), Marco Sturm (head) and Scottie Upshall (upper body).

 

(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Anaheim Ducks will try to get back in the win column tonight when they visit the Edmonton Oilers for tonight's clash at Rexall Place. The Ducks had won three straight before dropping a 1-0 overtime decision Thursday in Calgary. The three-game winning streak was Anaheim's longest since a four-game stretch from Oct. 8-17.

 

Hiller made 18 saves in the loss for the Ducks, who fell to just 3-10-6 as the guest this season. Anaheim is playing the middle portion of a three-game road trip tonight and will close the swing Sunday in Vancouver.

 

Hiller sat out Anaheim's previous game due to a lower-body injury and it's unclear if he'll be able to start on back-to-back days this evening. Jeff Deslauriers served as the backup on Thursday and could get the call this evening.

 

Still, the setback dropped the Oilers to 4-14-2 in their last 20 games. Edmonton also failed to rebound from a 1-6 road trip as it dropped the opener of a three-game homestand to fall to 10-6-3 as the host this season.

 

"We came back from 1-0 in the third. It's not like we had a 3-1 lead and gave it up," said Edmonton's Taylor Hall, who had an assist. "When you're losing going into the third and you come out with a point, it's not always a bad thing."

 

(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Toronto Maple Leafs will try to sweep a home-and-home series with the Sabres and also extend their longest win streak of the season when they visit Buffalo's First Niagara Center for tonight's Northeast Division clash. After ending December on an 0-2-1 slide, the Maple Leafs have posted four straight victories to begin 2012. The current run has featured a pair of shutouts, including a 2-0 win over the visiting Sabres on Tuesday.

 

Toronto has missed the postseason in each of the previous six seasons, but is currently sitting seventh out of eight playoff seeds in the Eastern Conference.

 

Jonas Gustavsson has started all four games during Toronto's current hot streak and he stopped all 32 shots fired his way to post his third career shutout in Tuesday's victory over the visiting Sabres.

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FOOTBALL BETTING : Crabtree's base deal: six years, $32 million

Football Betting

In the wake of the news that the 49ers have signed receiver Michael Crabtree after an extended holdout, there has been not a hint of the dollars to be paid to Crabtree.

And since this means that his agent hasn't leaked the numbers, it means that his agent feels no specific motivation to do so.

Possibly because his agent isn't all that thrilled to have his name on the deal.

So the numbers will come from sources other than Crabtree's agent. And we've gotten our mitts into them.

Per a league source, Crabtree has signed a six-year, $32 million contract. (The total includes guaranteed money, base salaries, and the one-time incentive based on achieving minimum playing time.)

The deal also includes $17 million in guaranteed money.

As reported elsewhere, the deal can void to five years based on performance triggers, wiping out a final year base salary of $4 million. But they won't be easily reached.

The source tells us that, in his first four seasons (including 2009), Crabtree must either qualify for two Pro Bowls, or he must qualify for one Pro Bowl in one year and he must participate in 80 percent of the offensive snaps in a separate year in which the team makes the playoffs.

In other words, if in 2010 he qualifies for the Pro Bowl and the team makes the playoffs and he participates in 80 percent of the snaps, he'll still need to make it to the Pro Bowl or achieve the 80-percent/playoffs in another season.

Since the chances of Crabtree making the Pro Bowl or participating in 80 percent of the offensive snaps this year is roughly zero percent, he'll have three years to get it done.

And it won't be easy. Frankly, he'll be hard pressed to make it to one Pro Bowl in three years with the likes of Larry Fitzgerald, Calvin Johnson, Anquan Boldin, Steve Smith, the other Steve Smith, Hakeem Nicks, DeSean Jackson, Johnny Knox, Percy Harvin, Greg Jennings, Roddy White, T.J. Houshmandzadeh in the same conference for sportsbook betting.

So, by all appearances, it's a six-year deal. And at $17 million in guaranteed money, the per-year guarantee is a tepid $2.83 million per year.

There's another problem with the deal -- it has no mid-tier incentive package. Instead, the additional $8 million that Crabtree can earn (pushing the max value to six years, $40 million) requires the kind of unrealistic, mega-star performances that no rookie is likely to ever achieve.

So while the contract paid to Packers defensive tackle B.J. Raji covers five years and pays $22.5 million, he has the ability (if he's a solid player) to make up the difference between his base deal and Crabtree's five-year, $28 million haul via the mid-tier incentive package in Raji's deal.

And unless Crabtree meets the performance thresholds necessary to void the sixth year, he'll be stuck under contract for another year at a base salary of only $4 million.

There's one other area of concern with the deal. Crabtree, per the source, received no option bonus. Instead, he has significant money tied to a fairly new device known as a "discretionary salary advance," which unlike an opition bonus is subject to forfeiture if Crabtree decides in a year or two that he wants to hold out for a better deal. (We're also told that the 49ers have included language that would make certain escalators subject to forfeiture, too.)

Meanwhile, the deal falls well short of the mark for which Crabtree and agent Eugene Parker were aiming -- the five-year, $38.25 million contract paid by the Raiders to receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey, the seventh overall pick in the draft.

Even if Crabtree successfully voids the final year, he'll make more than $2 million per year less on average than Heyward-Bey.

Thus, as we explained earlier in the day, this is a deal that Crabtree could have done in July, which would have given him a much better chance of making a contribution to the 49ers during his rookie year.

So while the final outcome can be described as win-win, the broader view suggests that it's really a lose-lose situation.

NFL Betting Lines

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