Blues aim to bounce back against visiting Isles

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02/16/2012 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The St. Louis Blues will try to rebound from just their third regulation loss of 2012 when they host the New York Islanders tonight at Scottrade Center.

St. Louis has gone 13-3-2 since the start of January and one of the few games that ended without the Blues gaining a point came in a 2-1 loss at Columbus on Tuesday. The Blues hope to get back on track tonight in the Gateway City, where they've set a club record for most consecutive home games with a point, going 16-0-3 since a 5-2 loss to Chicago on Dec. 3. St. Louis is 24-3-4 at home on the season.

In general, not much has gone wrong for the Blues since they fired head coach Davis Payne and replaced him with Ken Hitchcock back in early November. The club has posted a 28-8-7 record since the coaching change and the Blues haven't lost consecutive games in regulation since Hitchcock took over. That could change tonight, as St. Louis tries to avoid its first 0-2 stretch since it lost in Calgary and Edmonton on Oct. 28 and 30, respectively.

St. Louis is currently the fourth seed in the Western Conference and is three points ahead of Nashville for that distinction. The Blues are also five points behind Detroit for first place in the Central Division.

The Blues fired 32 shots at Steve Mason on Tuesday and only one found its way past the Columbus goaltender. Derek Dorsett scored the game-winning goal for the Blue Jackets at 6:49 of the third period.

David Backes scored the lone goal for St. Louis, which had a four-game winning streak stopped. Jaroslav Halak turned away 31-of-33 shots in defeat.

"We got outplayed for two periods," Hitchcock said. "We outplayed them in the first, but they outplayed us badly in the second and third. They were the better team today."

On the injury front, the Blues have played the last six games without Jason Arnott (shoulder), but the veteran forward is expected to return tonight. Meanwhile, fellow forward Matt D'Agostini has sat out four in a row with a head injury and will miss another game tonight.

The Islanders have posted a 5-2-1 record over their last eight games, as they continue to fight for a spot in the playoffs. With 56 points, New York is currently eight behind Toronto for the East's eighth and final postseason berth.

Evgeni Nabokov was the main reason behind a New York win in its last trip to the ice, as the veteran goaltender stopped 37 shots to help lift the Islanders to Tuesday's 3-1 victory in Winnipeg. The Russian netminder is 8-3 with a 1.56 goals-against average in his last 11 games and he could land a nice price if New York decides to deal him before the Feb. 27 trade deadline.

P.A. Parenteau had a goal and an assist on Tuesday, while Matt Martin and Matt Moulson also scored for the Islanders.

New York has won four straight and six of its last seven road games, improving its record as the guest this season to 12-11-3.

The Isles and Blues have each won three games in their last six meetings against each other. St. Louis has taken two of the last three encounters at Scottrade Center, but the Isles have six wins in their previous eight trips to Missouri.

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Michael Vick is back, Brett Favre isn't and the NFC East remains the best division in the NFC, maybe in all of football.

As players start to gather for the start of another season, some things change and some stay the same in the world of the NFL.

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The NFC East has been the dominant division in the National Conference for a while, despite limited playoff success, save for the New York Giants surprise Super Bowl win two seasons ago.

Hell, there's a generation of kids in Texas who have never seen the Cowboys win a playoff game (last win was in 1996).

But collectively, the Giants, Eagles, Cowboys and Redskins (well, maybe not so much the Redskins) are as good as a division gets in an NFC conference that has struggled to stay competitive with the AFC side.

Sports bettors have both acknowledged the NFC East's dominance, as one glance at the NFL future odds menu will show.

Looking over the NFL betting odds at online sports book MySportsbook.com we see the top three teams listed to win the NFC Championship are all from the NFC East:

Dallas Cowboys - 7 - 1

Philadelphia Eagles - 13 - 2

New York Giants - 9 - 2

Slotting in behind these three are two teams from the NFC North: the Minnesota Vikings (15-2) and the Chicago Bears (10-1).

Again, despite the lack of recent playoff success, the Dallas Cowboys are popular with the sports betting community, as they hold 14% of all the money wagered on who will win the NFC Championship.

So far, the New York Giants are the bettors' favorite to represent their conference in the Super Bowl, as they have 24% of the overall NFC Championship betting volume.

And what about the Philadelphia Eagles? For the most part, the Eagles had a very productive offseason, the kind that could bring them back to the top.

They had a good draft adding the likes of WR Jeremy Maclin and RB LeSean McCoy.

Unfortunately, the team received a blow when long-time defensive coordinator Jim Johnson passed away on Tuesday.

But this team will make a real run at the division title this year. Going into the regular season, Philly is listed at +240 to win the division.

Last season the Eagles were 9-6-1 SU and 10-6 ATS.

Teams from the NFC East will play teams from the AFC West in the regular season and the Eagles haven't really been a good bet in the last 20 games against the likes of San Diego, Oakland, K.C. and Denver, only going 8-12 ATS.

Two seasons removed from that Super Bowl title, the New York Giants see themselves listed as the odds-on favorite in NFC East championship futures at +162.

Plaxico Burress is gone and with him all the bad publicity surrounding the gun in the sweatpants incident, but can they replace him in the offense?

Last season the Giants were a very reliable bet going 12-4 ATS.

In the Giants' last 20 games against fellow teams from the NFC East; they are 13-7 ATS.

Dallas is listed at +240 to win the division.

Dallas went 9-7 SU and 7-9 ATS last season and with the amount of talent the Cowboys have, a similar performance won't do.

The Cowboys have been atrocious against divisional rivals, going 6-14 ATS in their last 20.

The Washington Redskins are longshots to win the division at +550.

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