Aiming for first three-game win streak, Stars host Sharks

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12/29/2008 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Dallas Stars will get another chance at their first three-game winning streak of the season when they host the mighty San Jose Sharks for tonight's Pacific Division clash at American Airlines Center.

In addition to winning back-to-back games, the Stars have been victorious in four of their last five contests. Dallas has also recorded at least a point in five straight games, going 4-0-1 over that stretch.

The Sharks, meanwhile, are tied for the NHL lead with 58 points and are 23 points ahead of Dallas for first place in the Pacific.

San Jose is 2-0 against the Stars this year and won the last meeting by a 6-2 score when they rolled to a win in Dallas on November 28. The Sharks have won three of four and five of the last eight encounters between the clubs and have also taken five of six in Dallas.

However, the Stars did get the better of San Jose in the playoffs last year as Dallas eliminated the Sharks in six games during the Western Conference semifinals.

The Stars earned their most-recent victory over another Pacific rival, posting Saturday's overtime victory against visiting Anaheim. Mike Modano ripped a one-timer past Jean-Sebastien Giguere with 1:26 remaining in OT to give Dallas the 4-3 decision over the Ducks.

Mike Ribeiro recorded a goal and two assists, while James Neal and Brad Richards each scored and added a helper for Dallas, which was coming off an 8-2 victory over Toronto. Marty Turco was shaky in net, but made 19 saves to pick up the win.

Richards and Ribeiro each extended point streaks to five games with the former notching four goals and six assists during the run and the latter posting two goals and seven helpers.

Saturday's win marked the opener of a three-game homestand for the Stars, who are 8-5-3 as the host this year. Dallas will complete the residency against New Jersey on New Year's Eve.

The Sharks had a two-game winning streak halted their last time out, as they dropped a shootout decision Saturday in St. Louis. Brad Winchester scored the equalizer in the third period and tallied the game-winner in the shootout, as the Blues edged San Jose, 3-2, notching their first win over the Sharks since the 2006-07 season.

San Jose last lost to the Blues on January 20, 2007 and had beaten St. Louis seven straight times prior to Saturday's setback. The Sharks also had won seven in a row in the Gateway City.

Jonathan Cheechoo and Mike Grier each had a goal and an assist for the Sharks. Joe Thornton added a pair of helpers for San Jose, while Evgeni Nabokov made 26 saves.

The Sharks are playing the middle segment of a three-game road trip that will end New Year's Eve at Minnesota. San Jose has lost three straight as the visiting team and is sporting a 9-4-2 road record this season.

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SPORTS BETTING: NFL Football Sportsbook Betting

NFL owners, already life's biggest winners, want to try their luck with the lottery.


That was the news out of their meetings last week, where team bosses voted unanimously to allow stamping state and local lottery tickets with franchise logos, if, ahem, any governments wanted to do a deal.

A shocker: Within days the Pats announced they'd be sponsoring the Massachusetts state lottery, the Skins said they'd slap their sticker on Virginia scratch-offs and the Ravens admitted they were talking to Maryland lottery bosses. In all likelihood, it won't be long before every team is a presenting sponsor of scratch-offs or just plain old pick fives. "The change in policy was approved 32-0," said NFL spokesman Greg Aiello. "So you can expect to see more deals soon."

It's a branding opportunity too big for the owners to ignore, and one a couple of dozen baseball franchises have enjoyed for years. The fact the NFL has been slower to act than those slack-brained Seligites is indicative of its complicated relationship with all forms of gambling. Consider this: Last Thursday, as the Pats and the Redskins finalized their new lottery deals, a lawyer representing the NFL argued before Delaware's Supreme Court that the state's newly signed sports betting law should be repealed.

The NFL betting is the face of opposition to sports gambling . And as much as it would like to share that responsibility with other leagues, that's not going to happen as long as more than 40% of all money legally wagered on games is bet on football. That's why the Brewers can do a multi-million dollar deal with a local casino, or the Celtics can make their own pact with the Mass lottery, and the response is, "Sweet, let's play." But when the NFL does it the stakes are higher, and everyone from NPR's Frank Deford to the Associated Press to the guys blogging at Deadspin will line up to play gotcha.

So I asked Aiello, who surely knew there'd be piling on, how the league can rail against being bait for sports bettors, then allow its franchises to be just that for lotteries, the most insidious and addictive form of gambling around. He emailed me this response: "We are not moral crusaders. NFL personnel are permitted to engage in legal forms of gambling, except for betting on NFL games. We are making a distinction here between the spread of gambling on the outcome of our games and supporting state lottery scratch-off games, that have nothing to do with the outcome of our games."

Here's where I should rip him. But, the thing is, he's right. Not to get Obama on you, but this is a complicated, nuanced issue. As much as lotteries are considered a tax on the poor, the NFL isn't a socially obligated government program -- it's just a business. Scratch-off's help the bottom line, sports betting doesn't. Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors … But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal.

Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors. And it's okay to mutter something obscene when the league pretends gambling doesn't help drive TV ratings and fan interest and put money in owners' pockets. But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal. The Bears should put an orange "C" on every deck of cards dealt at Harrah's in Joliet; the Eagles should slap their logo on roulette wheels at the Borgata in Atlantic City; the Dolphins should hold training camp at the El San Juan in Puerto Rico.

Seriously.

The NFL's problem, when it comes to the gambling world, isn't hypocrisy, it's worse: The bosses lack vision. That's why the league is picking unwinnable fights in Delaware and taking pot shots from critics after making smart sponsorship deals. Roger Goodell and his gang are acting and thinking locally rather than globally, which is rare for them, especially compared to their professional (and amateur) counterparts.

The NBA held its All Star game in Las Vegas and David Stern's kingdom didn't crumble (although the town did bring plenty of players to their knees.) I'd say it's 6 to 5 and pick 'em that Lebron will make a road swing through Sin City before his career is over.

Even the NCAA College Football Betting is more progressive on this issue than the NFL. Several years ago Rachel Newman Baker, college sports' gambling czar, opened a dialogue with Vegas bookmakers to learn about how they do business. She's visited Nevada sports books, studied their operations and listened to how they regulate action. Now she knows she can expect a call from bookmakers, who lose money when sports are fixed, if they think something sketchy is going on in NCAA games. She's not in favor of sports betting, but, as she once told me, "I know it's not going away, either."

The NFL can't seem to accept that. And until it can find peace with the idea, it'll get flack, even when it's right.

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