Sharks aim to maintain home mastery of Jackets

Hockey Betting Lines

03/06/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The San Jose Sharks have gotten off to a bit of a slow start since the Olympic break. A visit from the Columbus Blue Jackets could provide the spark they need.

San Jose continues a five-game residency tonight seeking an 11th straight victory at home over Columbus.

The Sharks began their post-Olympic schedule -- and current homestand at HP Pavilion -- on Tuesday versus the New Jersey Devils, who scored the game's first four goals. San Jose responded with a trio of third-period markers but couldn't complete the comeback in a 4-3 setback.

San Jose then hosted Montreal on Thursday and trailed by one goal entering the third period before Dany Heatley and Manny Malhotra scored in a 2:33 span to lift the Sharks to a 3-2 victory.

Patrick Marleau scored earlier for San Jose while short-handed to break a six- game goal drought, his career-high 39th tally of the season to surpass the 38 he netted in 2008-09. Evgeni Nabokov totaled 28 saves and stopped all 11 he saw in the final period as the Sharks snapped a brief two-game slide and won for the sixth time in their last nine home games.

The contest with the Canadiens was a chippy one and it took a scary turn in the third, when San Jose's Scott Nichol was drilled into the boards from behind after hitting the post on a breakaway attempt.

"It was a really dirty hit," San Jose's Dan Boyle said of the incident. "You can paralyze a guy like that. There's no place for that in hockey."

San Jose remains tied with Chicago for the most points in the Western Conference and are also three back of Washington for tops in the NHL.

Tonight the Sharks will try to avoid dropping their first home game to the Blue Jackets since January 8, 2004, as Columbus is 0-9-1 in 10 trips to San Jose since.

The Sharks have won seven of their last nine overall versus the Blue Jackets, but did drop a 3-0 decision in Columbus when the clubs last met on February 10.

Steve Mason made 40 saves and Rick Nash, Jakub Voracek and Antoine Vermette all scored in that win, which was Columbus' third straight under Claude Noel since he replaced former head coach Ken Hitchcock on February 3 on an interim basis.

Columbus is 0-1-2 since and dropped its first game after the Olympics on Tuesday versus Vancouver, a 4-3 setback in overtime despite goals from Vermette, Derek Dorsett and Andrew Murray, who broke a 41-game goal drought. Mason made 27 saves in defeat.

"The game was what I thought it would be," Noel said. "You're playing a good team. When you look at the game, our power play wasn't very good."

Columbus, which plays its next three games on the road and is 11 points back of a playoff spot, will have a different look tonight following Wednesday's trade deadline. The Blue Jackets made a host of trades, shipping out forwards Fredrik Modin (Los Angeles), Raffi Torres (Buffalo) and Alexandre Picard (Carolina) as well as defenseman Milan Jurcina (Washington) and Mathieu Roy (Florida).

The Blue Jackets totaled three draft picks in return as well as forwards Matt Rust (Florida) and Chad Kolarik (Phoenix) and defenseman Nathan Paetsch (Buffalo). Paetsch may play tonight for Columbus, while blueliner Mike Commodore should return from a lower-body injury that had sidelined him since January 30.

Center Derick Brassard, though, will miss his second game in a row thanks to a hand ailment.

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Albert Pujols to be This Year's Home Run Champ Says Online Sportsbook

Barry Bonds is a 50-1 long shot to be this year's home run champ odds.  The favorite to be this year's home run champ is none other than Albert Pujols, however.

Now that Barry Bonds is signed and in Giants camp, it is on to his pursuit of all of sports most prestigious records: the all-time home run mark. Bonds sits just 21 homers shy of tying Hank Aaron for the career mark at 755. Word out of Giants’ camp is that Bonds is the healthiest he has been in a few years. Bonds is just two seasons removed from his injury riddled 2005 campaign where he played in only 14 games and hit only 5 home runs. He did come back last year and had a solid season hitting .270 with 26 bombs. All eyes will be on Bonds this spring and summer not only because of his home run chase but his highly publicized steroid abuse allegations. If and when Bonds breaks the record, he surely will not get the positive attention one should for breaking a record that was once thought of as “unbreakable”. Despite Bonds decent season last year, he is just 50-1 at MySportsbook.com to lead the MLB in long balls this season.

Not surprisingly, the favorites to go deep the most times this season are Albert Pujols 5-1, Ryan Howard 6-1, David Ortiz 8-1 and Alex Rodriguez 12-1. With 49 homers, Pujols finished second in the National League behind Howard (58). Pujols is considered the favorite due to the consistent power numbers that he has posted since breaking into the league in 2001. Also one must consider the fact that he played in 16 fewer games then Howard did due to an injury. Howard smashed 58 homers in his first complete season of big league play en route to the National League MVP odds award. He silenced his critics by successfully hitting left-handed pitching. Howard also displayed the ability to use his power to the opposite field. Two attributes which should keep Howard amongst the league leaders in long balls for years to come. From the American League representatives, David Ortiz leads the field. Ortiz was second in the majors last year with 54 home runs. Except for 1999 when he only played in 10 games, Ortiz has improved on his home run numbers each year he has been in the majors (1997).

Be sure to log onto online sports betting site MySportsbook.com to check out the odds for who will lead the MLB in home runs this season. Below is just a sample of the players listed. With the highest credit card rates in the industry, MySportsbook.com is the place to bet on baseball this summer.

World Series odds

Adam Dunn 15-1

Albert Pujols 5-1

Alex Rodriguez 12-1

Alfonso Soriano 15-1

Andruw Jones 25-1

Barry Bonds 50-1

Carlos Delgado 40-1

David Ortiz 8-1

Jermaine Dye 40-1

Ken Griffey Jr. 100-1

Lance Berkman 40-1

Manny Ramirez 20-1

Richie Sexson 40-1

Ryan Howard 6-1

Travis Hafner 20-1

Vladimir Guerrero 40-1

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com - this sportsbook accepts credit cards.


Online Sportsbook Football Betting

Why Sports Betting is so much fun?

Betting Sports

The most popular sports to bet on are NFL and college football along with NBA and NCAA basketball. There are multiple betting opportunities within those sports, beginning with the basic wager on a game’s outcome (also called betting the side). College Football Point spreads are used in both football and basketball in an attempt to even the attractiveness of each team in a match-up. ( See our article detailing how and why point spreads are made)

But you could also simply bet on the money line, or straight-up winner of the game. Oddsmakers use the money line so that more money must be risked on the favorite or expected winner and less money on the underdog to balance the action on both sides. While money line gambling is an attractive option for football and basketball bettors who only care about picking a winner, it is the primary option for those bettors who enjoy wagering on MLB baseball and individual sports like boxing, tennis, golf and racing events such as NASCAR. ( More details on playing the Money Line)

Points (or Runs) Scored

Another bet across all major team sports including football, basketball, baseball, and hockey involves wagering on the amount of scoring in a game, called an Over/Under total. For example, the Over/Under total on Super Bowl XXXIX was 48, which means a bettor could wager whether there would be more or less than 48 points scored by both teams combined in the game.

The final score of Super Bowl XXXIX was 24-21; the scoring of both teams added up to 45, which means the game went Under . So Under bettors won, and Over bettors lost.

Future Bets

Sports gambling doesn’t end there. Betting sides and totals are the most common wagers available everywhere, but many sportsbooks also offer future bets on big upcoming events like who will win next year’s Super Bowl and what movie will win Best Picture at the Academy Awards.

The main advantage of futures is that you can get appealing odds by betting far in advance. For example, with NFL futures you often can get much higher odds on a team by betting before the season even starts. A NFL future bet on a team to win the Super Bowl odds might be 20/1 in the preseason; but by midseason, their odds might decrease to 10/1 if they turn out to be legitimate championship contenders.

Proposition Bets (or Prop Bets)

Proposition bets , also known as prop bets, focus upon the more exotic aspects of a game and are generally reserved for events that are widely televised. Prop bets are extremely popular when it comes to wagering on the Super Bowl in Las Vegas. The Imperial Palace Casino’s sportsbook is well-known for the enormous number of prop bets offered. For example, you can bet on:

Types of Bets

Straight Bet

Involves one individual wager, whether it be on your team to cover the point spread, to win the game straight-up on the money line, or to go over/under the total.

Sports Betting Parlays

A parlay is a single bet that links together two or more individual wagers and is dependent on all of those wagers winning together. The benefit of the parlay bet is much better odds than placing each individual bet separately since the difficulty of hitting it is much higher.

Standard payoffs on a two-team parlay are 13/5; while a three-teamer pays 6/1; and a four-teamer 10/1.

Parlay cards are also fairly common in sportsbooks and popular with bettors, as they are released early in the week with set odds that do not change in return for a slightly lower payoff.

Round Robin Betting

Adventurous bettors who enjoy betting parlays sometimes put together a series of parlays called a Round Robin . A three-team Round Robin consists of one three-team parlay and three two-team parlays. For example, Joe likes teams A,B,C – with a Round Robin he has a three-teamer with ABC, and two-teamers with AB, AC, and BC.

Betting Teasers

Similar to a parlay, a teaser bet is a single bet that links together two or more individual wagers, but is different in that the point spread is adjusted to your advantage on each individual wager. In exchange for the points, you get less of a return on your bet compared to a parlay. For example, a 6-point teaser would move the line on a 7-point favorite from -7 to -1, meaning the team would have to cover 6 less points. Each of the individual wagers must win or the bet is a loss.

These are the main types of sports bets available today. But as sports betting continues to grow, sportsbooks will continue to develop new and creative ways to bet. We’ll continue to track these changes to the sports gambling landscape, so check back often and we’ll tell you all about it!

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting needs.