Blue Jackets host Oilers in meeting of disappointing clubs

Hockey Betting Lines

03/15/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - With both clubs headed towards disappointing finishes to the 2009-10 season, the Edmonton Oilers and Columbus Blue Jackets face each other for the final time this year tonight at Nationwide Arena.

Columbus made the postseason for the first time in club history a season ago, but currently sits 14th in the Western Conference with 65 points, 13 back of a postseason spot. The only team the Blue Jackets are ahead of in the West standings are the Oilers, who are last in the NHL with 49 points and will miss the playoffs for a fourth straight season.

The Blue Jackets have won two of three over the Oilers this year, winning each of the last two meetings. Columbus picked up a 3-2 shootout victory over Edmonton on Nov. 16 in the only meeting so far this year at Nationwide Arena, with Jakub Voracek getting the winner in the shootout.

Voracek had the only goal in Saturday's 5-1 loss to St. Louis as Columbus lost for the sixth time in its last eight games. Steve Mason made 31 saves.

"We have to keep stepping up as individuals," forward R.J. Umberger said. "We chased all game and they had puck possession and we could not get it at all. It wasn't like we were passing up opportunities to shoot this time, we just didn't have the puck at all. It's tough to play like that."

Columbus was without two of its top three scorers, as Rick Nash missed his third straight game due to a lower-body injury and Kristian Huselius sat out for the third time in four contests because of a lower-body issue. Nash leads Columbus with 28 goals and 57 points, while Huselius is tied for the team lead with 31 assists and is third with 49 points.

Huselius, though, could return tonight after skating on Sunday, but Nash is doubtful as he is also now battling illness.

Mason is 2-1-0 with a 2.68 goals-against average in three career starts versus the Blue Jackets, but has yet to face them this year. Instead, Mathieu Garon has posted a 2.93 GAA in the three meetings.

The Oilers come to town after dropping a 6-4 decision in Toronto on Saturday. Dustin Penner had a goal and two assists while Andrew Cogliano, Gilbert Brule and Aaron Johnson all scored. However, the Oilers dropped their third straight overall and lost for the 15th time in their last 16 road games.

Jeff Deslauriers stopped 23-of-28 shots before being pulled after the second period. Devan Dubnyk made 18 saves in relief.

"It was disappointing for a few of our guys tonight," said Oilers coach Pat Quinn, who coached his first game at Air Canada Center since being fired by Toronto after the 2005-06 season. "They seemed lost in our zone. For 10 minutes we were fine, but I haven't played in a 10-minute game in a long time. It wasn't good enough for us."

Deslauriers has never faced the Blue Jackets while Dubnyk stopped 25-of-29 shots in his only ever start versus them. That came in a 4-2 setback at Edmonton on Jan. 7 in the most recent meeting between the teams.

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SPORTS BETTING - Tennis is an underrated and under-utilized bettors' sport.

Ten years ago, at just about this time, I called Alan Boston in Vegas and left him a voicemail that went something like this (abridged version): "Hey Alan, Chad Millman from ESPN The Magazine calling. I want to do a book about wise guys, you in?"

A couple weeks later I got a message back (abridged version): "I don't know, maybe," Boston said. "Call me and we'll talk about it. But not later today. I got $1,000 on Andre Agassi to win the French Open at 40-1, and he's in the finals."

Here's what happened next (abridged version): Agassi won his tourney. Boston won his $40,000. I wrote sportsbook.

In the ten years since, how much has been wagered on the big-time tennis events? Put it this way: The Nevada Gaming Commission doesn't even track the number year by year because it's so small.

"Tennis makes up about one-tenth of one percent of our take," says Lucky's bookmaking boss Jimmy Vaccaro. "The last big golf major we probably had $100,000 worth of bets. In tennis, we might have written two big tickets."

Tennis' lack of popularity amongst the American bettoratti is no surprise, really. For starters, the biggest sports betting holidays -- the Super Bowl, the NCAA tourney -- are must see TV. People, at least the degenerates I know, plan vacations around watching those events in Vegas sports books.

But Wimbledon? Doesn't exactly reel in the whales. "Seriously, it's the nuts as an event," says Boston. "But who even knows when it's on?"

Here's another reason that helps explain why golf gets traction, something I call "The Bubbe Theory." My Bubbe is pushing 95 and has cataracts so bad that, to her, even the most crystalline Chicago day is mostly cloudy. But she still listens to the Cubs games, and she still calls me in a fit if she disagrees with something Rick Telander writes in the Chicago Sun Times. She's a sports fan. If she doesn't know you, you're just filling a niche. And niche players, even historically good ones like Roger and Raf, don't drive betting volume. Only the highest profile names attract square money, which inflates wagering totals like a shot of saline to the lips. Bubbe, and the public, loved Agassi, tennis' last cross-the-rubicon, mainstream draw. She also has a crush on Tiger. She's given me standing orders to put a sawbuck on the big cat whenever I walk through a sports book (or mistakenly tap into one via my Internet machine.) That explains why the Masters is getting $100K in action at some books while the four tennis majors might not get that combined this year.

This isn't a case of tennis being a difficult sport to bet. In fact, in Europe, it's probably the second most popular sport for gambling after soccer. Granted, as the WSJ football betting last week and The Mag's Shaun Assael examined in even greater depth last year, that might be because gamblers across the pond see it as an easy game to fix. But it could also be because, over there it holds the kind of sway the big two do over here.

Street corners in Spain are peppered with public courts and kids doing their best Raffy impressions. In some war torn parts of Eastern Europe poverty-stricken kids view tennis as an escape route, like football or basketball here. A couple years ago The Mag's Lindsay Berra wrote a great piece about Belgrade's Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic. They learned the game as kids while bombs were raining down on their homeland. They practiced in drained swimming pools. Not exactly Nick Bolletierri conditions.

In the United States, casual fans think tennis is played four times a year. But on the tightly packed European continent, national interest in homegrown talent runs deep every weekend. Of the ATP's current top 20 players, only two, tennis betting and James Blake, are American. Fourteen are from Europe, representing six different countries.

No wonder fans from Lisbon to Bhudapest get jacked up for the net game, whether it's Wimbledon or a low-level tourney like the Estoril Open in Portugal (congrats to Spain's Albert Montanes for winning that one, btw). Chances are good that someone representing their flag will not only be playing, but have a shot at winning.

And that's all any bettor can ask for.

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