Devils visit surging Maple Leafs

Hockey Betting Lines

03/18/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Although it's highly unlikely to result in a playoff spot, the Toronto Maple Leafs have put together one of their best stretches of the season over the past week. They'll try to sustain that newfound momentum into a three-game homestand that begins with tonight's battle against the New Jersey Devils from the Air Canada Centre.

Toronto has gone 4-1-0 over its last five outings and won all three of its matchups on home ice during that period. The club just came back from consecutive road games and concluded the short trip with a 4-1 victory over the reeling Ottawa Senators Tuesday at Scotiabank Place.

Jonas Gustavsson made 30 saves for the Maple Leafs in a strong performance between the pipes, with Phil Kessel, John Mitchell, Mikhail Grabovski and Rickard Wallin all scoring goals to provide the offense.

"We played a great road game," said Toronto head coach Ron Wilson. "We had a bad end to the second period, we got a little sloppy and lost our poise with the puck a few times. We rebounded in the third period and did a great job drawing penalties and forcing the issue and not sitting back."

Despite their recent charge, the Maple Leafs still reside at the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings with 60 points.

Grabovski's tally extended his scoring streak to five games, with the German center having recorded two goals and three assists over that span. Nikolai Kulemin assisted on Kessel's goal and now has eight points (4 goals, 4 assists) during a personal six-game run.

New Jersey heads to the Air Canada Centre off last night's big home win over rival Pittsburgh, with the 5-2 triumph giving the Devils a share of the Atlantic Division lead with the Penguins.

Zach Parise and Patrik Elias each had a goal and an assist for New Jersey, which took advantage of a shaky Marc-Andre Fleury and jumped out to a 4-1 advantage just past the midway point of the second period. Martin Brodeur made the lead stand by stopping 24-of-26 shots and help the Devils to a sixth consecutive win over Pittsburgh.

"With the respect that we have for them, we know that if we don't play hard we're going to have a tough time," Brodeur said of the defending Cup champion Penguins. "That respect makes us more accountable to the way we play."

Fleury was pulled 10:17 into the second period after letting up four goals on only 13 shots.

The victory was the fourth in five games for the Devils, who own a game in hand on the Penguins in the division race, but each of those wins have taken place at home. New Jersey has dropped its last three road tilts and is a dismal 1-8-1 as the visitor since January 26.

One of those losses occurred at the Air Canada Centre, a 3-0 setback on February 2 in which Leafs netminder Jean-Sebastien Giguere delivered 30 saves. The Devils did win both 2009-10 meetings between the teams held in the Garden State.

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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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