Panthers shoot for rare victory over Sharks

Hockey Betting Lines

03/13/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Florida needs all the victories it can muster from now until the end of the season to even have a chance at making the playoffs. The Panthers could have a tough time getting a win today, when they visit the mighty San Jose Sharks at HP Pavilion.

The Sharks entered Saturday as the top-seeded team in the Western Conference with 95 points and only Washington is ahead of them in the overall NHL standings.

Meanwhile, Florida is tied for 12th in the East and is eight points out of a playoff berth. The Panthers have the longest active postseason drought in the NHL, having last appeared in the playoffs in the spring of 2000.

The Panthers haven't had much success against San Jose in recent years although Florida did notch a 4-3 home victory over the Sharks last season. Still, San Jose is 7-1 with a tie in the last nine encounters overall and Florida has lost four straight at the Shark Tank.

San Jose has won its last three games and won its last outing despite giving up five goals -- the most the Sharks had yielded since a 6-2 loss to Los Angeles on January 4.

On Thursday, Joe Pavelski registered two goals and two assists, as the Sharks exploded for six goals in the third period to rally past the visiting Nashville Predators, 8-5.

"It's a catch-22 thing to have any type of success," said Sharks head coach Todd McLellan. "This isn't going to happen again. If it does, it will be a miracle. For us to be successful, we have to have everybody on board for the first 40 minutes, not just the last 15."

Dany Heatley added two goals and a helper, while Manny Malhotra finished with a goal and two assists for the Sharks.

San Jose's Patrick Marleau reached the 40-goal plateau for the first time in his career, and Joe Thornton also tallied. Evgeni Nabokov made 40 saves to pick up the win, his 37th of the season.

Today's test marks the final contest of a five-game homestand for the Sharks, who have an excellent 22-6-7 mark as the host this year. Next up for San Jose is a six-game road trip, which begins Sunday in Anaheim.

The Panthers, meanwhile, had a three-game winning streak halted in their last game, getting blanked 3-0 Thursday night at Colorado. Paul Stastny scored twice in the second period to support a 27-save performance by former Florida goaltender Craig Anderson at the Pepsi Center.

Tomas Vokoun stopped 28 shots for the Panthers, who were shut out for the third time in 11 games.

"We've got to get more traffic, especially when the goalies are good like that," said Florida forward David Booth.

The Panthers have lost seven of their last eight away games and are closing out a three-game road trip tonight. Florida is 13-18-3 as the visitor this season.

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FOOTBALL BETTING LINES

NFL Football Sports Betting

Two playoff teams from 2007 take center stage on the NFL Network Sunday night in a Week 2 NFL betting match-up when the (0-1) New England Patriots betting head south to Florida for a contest with the (1-0) Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

New England HC Bill Belichick couldn’t care less about the way his team plays in the preseason. With a chance to tie last week’s game with the Baltimore Ravens betting, He elected to go for the two-point conversion and outright victory. The conversion failed, and the Pats ended up falling to the Ravens by a 16-15 final count.

New England rolled off twelve unanswered points to give it a chance at securing the victory, but it never threatened to cover the 3.5-point spread. NFL bettors saw this one coming, as they bet the Ravens down from +6 to +3.5 as the week progressed. QB Tom Brady didn’t take part in the Patriots first preseason clash, but could see action this weekend.

His three replacements all put up embarrassing numbers. They went a combined 17 for 33, and threw three interceptions and no touchdowns. The New England defense was encouraging, as they held the Ravens to 2/12 third down conversions and surrendered just ten first downs. That ‘D’ should be bolstered with the addition of former Bucs and Denver Broncos betting safety John Lynch, who could make his Patriots debut on Sunday against his former mates.

HC Jon Gruden had to be impressed with the way his Bucs played on both sides of the ball in their dominating 17-6 victory over the Miami Dolphins in Week 1’s NFL pre-season betting action. Bucs bettors were quite happy with the effort, as they made a mockery of the fact that they were underdogs in the game.

The logjam at the quarterback position didn’t get any easier to separate for Gruden, as all four of his QBs had positive experiences in the first exhibition of 2008. The four combined to complete 28 of their 40 passes for 204 yards and a touchdown, and that was without starting QB Jeff Garcia in the lineup.

RB Michael Bennett had 19 carries and four receptions, totaling 90 yards and a touchdown. Expect to see more of Bennett, Kenneth Darby, and Earnest Graham, as they all compete for playing time with Warrick Dunn in the backfield this season. Defensively, the Bucs recorded four sacks and held the Fins offense in check all day.

First round draft pick Aqib Talib was impressive in the secondary, recording a tackle and two pass defenses in his debut. Don’t be surprised to see Talib in the starting lineup opposite Ronde Barber for the Bucs in ’08.

The betting trends suggest that NFL bettors should be backing the Bucs in this intra-conference exhibition.

These two teams hooked up last year in Tampa Bay, with the Bucs winning that game 13-10. The Buccaneers have only lost one preseason game at home dating back to the beginning of the ’05 preseason. The Patriots have had a mixed bag of results in their recent exhibitions. They have gone 2-2 ATS and SU each of the last three years.

New England currently sits as modest 1-point favorites in this preseason showdown with the ‘total’ now sitting at 34.5.

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