Caps try for rare win against Sharks

Hockey Betting Lines

02/13/2012 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Washington Capitals found themselves leading the Southeast Division a week ago, but consecutive losses have them outside of the playoff picture once again.

The Caps look to avoid losing three straight for the first time in over two months this evening and yet another setback to the Pacific Division-leading San Jose Sharks, who are going though their own struggles as they try to hold onto first place.

Washington moved a point past Florida for the division lead with a 4-0 win over the Panthers last Tuesday, but consecutive defeats to Winnipeg (in a shootout) and the New York Rangers have dropped the Capitals four points behind the Panthers for that top spot.

Even worse, Washington sits ninth overall in the Eastern Conference, a point behind Toronto.

After earning a point versus the Jets last Thursday, the Capitals were edged by the Rangers 3-2 yesterday. The game-winning goal for New York came early in the third on Brandon Prust's short-handed tally.

John Carlson had a goal and an assist for Washington and Alexander Semin also scored. Semin has four points in his past three games, while Alex Ovechkin has five in that span.

Michal Neuvirth made 25 saves for the Capitals, who are 3-4-3 in their past 10 games and will try to avoid dropping three in a row for the first time since a four-game slide from Nov. 25-Dec. 1.

"The shorthanded one was the critical goal," said Capitals head coach Dale Hunter. "That was the big one where we gave up a shorty and it ended up being a game-winner."

Washington hasn't had too many game-winning goals when facing San Jose. The Sharks posted a 5-2 win over the visiting Capitals on Jan. 7, handing Washington its fourth straight loss in this series and 15th in the past 16 encounters.

San Jose, which has won seven of its past eight at Washington, got the game- winning goal from Patrick Marleau to go along with two assists, while Dan Boyle added three helpers as 10 Sharks skaters logged a point. Antti Niemi made 28 saves.

Dennis Wideman and Joel Ward had the goals for the Capitals and Tomas Vokoun was touched for four goals on 38 shots.

Tonight's meeting should once again feature some firepower as no skaters in the league have more points in the NHL since the 2005-06 season than Ovechkin and the Sharks' Joe Thornton. Ovechkin is tops with 657 points since his rookie season, while Thornton is second in that time with 627.

Thornton and his teammates were shut down by the Blues on Sunday, dropping a 3-0 decision after failing to get any of their 25 shots past St. Louis goaltender Jaroslav Halak. The Sharks lost for the third time in four games, getting blanked for the fifth time this season, but still lead the Kings by a point for the lead in the Pacific Division.

Niemi allowed a pair of goals on 27 shots, with both goals against coming with the Sharks skating on a two-man disadvantage.

"I liked our start," Sharks head coach Todd McLellan said. "We played the right kind of game at least for the first 10 minutes until we took the three penalties. After that, they got a little momentum back and started to play their game."

San Jose also went 0-for-4 on the power play as it lost the opener of a season-long nine-game road trip. It was the Sharks' fifth loss in their past six road games overall.

Logan Couture had his career-high eight-game point streak end with the shutout loss. The Sharks forward had logged five goals and seven helpers over his run.

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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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