Second Period Adds Sunday At Regulation

Hockey Betting Lines

Anderson and the Sens will try to snap their season-high six-game slide this evening. The skid is the club's longest since an 0-9-2 drought from Jan. 14- Feb. 9 of last year and has dropped it seven points behind Boston for first place in the Northeast Division. The Sens are also sitting eighth overall in the East, now one point back of the Maple Leafs and three ahead of the ninth- place Capitals.

 

"This is definitely the worst loss. It's against a big rival for us, a team we're battling with," Senators center Jason Spezza said. "You hope this is the end of it."

 

(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Pittsburgh Penguins have gone through a rough patch to begin February, but they'll try to get back on track tonight when they visit the Montreal Canadiens at the Bell Centre. The Penguins ended January on an eight-game winning streak, but have lost two of three games to begin the new month as well as a four-game road trip that is set to end tonight.

 

Ilya Kovalchuk had a goal and two assists on Sunday for the Devils, who scored the game's first three goals. The shorthanded Penguins, playing once again without centers Sidney Crosby and Jordan Staal, got a goal apiece from Evgeni Malkin and Matt Niskanen.

 

Meanwhile, Marc-Andre Fleury, who was coming off a 28-save performance against the Bruins, was pulled in the second period on Sunday after allowing three goals on 12 shots. Brent Johnson made 11 saves in relief.

 

The setback dropped Pittsburgh to 15-12-2 on the road this season and also allowed New Jersey to pull within one point of the Pens for the fifth seed in the East. Pittsburgh is just two points behind Philadelphia for the conference's fourth spot.

 

Pittsburgh will try to sweep the season series against the Canadiens tonight. The Pens are 3-0 versus Montreal, but the last two games have gone past regulation. Pittsburgh's most recent win over Montreal came when it rallied from a pair of two-goal deficits to notch a 5-4 shootout win over the visiting Habs on Jan. 20.

 

"I thought our guys played with a lot of hunger and a lot of grit tonight," said Price. "We had a good forecheck and did a great job of pounding their defensemen. That's why we kept the momentum throughout most of the game."

 

The Habs are just 10-11-7 as the host this year and are completing a three- game homestand tonight.

 

Washington has won the last four Southeast titles, while the Panthers have never won a division crown and haven't even qualified for the playoffs since 2000. Florida has taken two of the first three meetings with the Caps this season, but Washington has won three in a row and six of the last seven encounters in D.C.

 

The Panthers had won their first two games following the All-Star break before getting slammed Saturday in Tampa. The Lightning rode a hat trick from Martin St. Louis en route to the decisive 6-3 victory.

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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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