Avalanche visit Oilers aiming to snap road skid

Hockey Betting Lines

02/17/2012 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Colorado Avalanche will try to pick up their first road win in nearly a month when they visit the Edmonton Oilers for tonight's Northwest Division battle at Rexall Place.

The Avalanche are 0-1-1 so far on a four-game road trip and the club has lost four straight away from Denver since recording a 3-1 decision in Los Angeles on Jan. 21. Colorado has also lost seven of its last nine as the guest and is just 12-13-3 as the road team this season.

Colorado will likely need to pick up its road play if it wants to qualify for the postseason. The Avs are currently five points out of a playoff spot in the Western Conference and 13 of their remaining 24 games are on the road.

The Avalanche were handed a 3-1 setback Wednesday night in Vancouver and Colorado lost more than the game, as goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere left the contest with a groin injury.

Giguere started the game in net, but left late in the first period after giving up a goal on nine shots. Semyon Varlamov let in one goal on 21 shots the rest of the way and will likely start tonight's test. Goaltender Cedrick Desjardins was recalled from Colorado's AHL affiliate in Lake Erie and is expected to serve as Varlamov's backup tonight.

Colorado also played Wednesday without forward Peter Mueller, who was a late scratch due to a torso injury. He could return tonight. Fellow forward T.J. Galiardi left Wednesday's game with an upper-body injury and will miss the next seven-to-ten days.

The Oilers have lost three of their last four games, but they've been able to earn points in their last two outings. Edmonton posted an overtime win Saturday in Ottawa and then lost in OT to visiting Toronto on Wednesday. Tim Connolly scored the game-winning goal just 1:39 into overtime to lift the Maple Leafs to the 4-3 decision.

Ben Eager, Taylor Hall and Jordan Eberle lit the lamp for the Oilers, who are 15 points out of the West's final postseason berth.

"We had a slow start but came back hard and played a good game," Eager said. "We had our chances to win, but unfortunately couldn't convert."

Nikolai Khabibulin was tagged for all four goals on 26 shots in Wednesday's defeat.

The setback ended Edmonton's four-game home winning streak and it came at the start of a three-game homestand. The Oilers, who will close the residency Sunday against Vancouver, are 15-8-4 as the host this season.

The Oilers hope to get defenseman Theo Peckham back tonight after he sat out the last six games due to a facial injury suffered in practice. Fellow blueliner Corey Potter is also questionable after missing the last two games with a groin injury.

Edmonton forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is still out indefinitely after re- injuring his shoulder earlier this month. The No. 1 overall pick of last summer's draft has 13 goals and 35 points in 40 games as a rookie.

The Oilers have won three of four meetings against Colorado this season and have taken five of eight overall in the series. Edmonton is also 5-0-2 in the last seven games as the host against the Avalanche.

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MySportsbook.com: New College Football Clock Rules Examined

Coaches and bettors alike are desperate to make sense of the new time-keeping rules on the NCAA gridiron. One of the big stories to come out of the Ohio State-Texas clash last weekend was Texas coach Mack Brown's criticism of the NCAA's new clock rules that are intended to shorten the duration of college football games, therefore affecting college football betting.

"They scored with six minutes left and the game was over before we had a chance to do anything," Brown told ESPN.com. "I really hope whoever made these changes will go back and look them over."

Sure, it might be sour grapes; the Buckeyes thoroughly trounced the defending national champion Longhorns 24-7. However, Brown isn't alone in giving the changes their due thought. Bettors are also wondering about them, albeit for a completely different reason. Most experts agree that the changes will result in games being shortened by anywhere from 10 to 20 plays. The obvious consequence is lower scores, with more time rolling off the clock during changes of possession. (The Ohio State-Texas game flew well under the total of 52.)

According to research at the online sportsbook MySportsbook.com, more than 18 plays a game disappeared last weekend into thin air. That's a 10-percent reduction. In 2005, a typical game had 168.58 plays. For 2007 already, it's down to 150.26.

As a result, teams combined to gain an average of about 100 fewer yards a game last weekend versus the 2005 openers. Scoring was also down by about 4.5 points (attention Las Vegas sports lines).

Of course, oddsmakers were able to adjust to the changes before the season started. Proof of that came as the over went a balanced 8-9 at My Sportsbook on Saturday.

Other angles to consider:A shorter game should theoretically result in shorter lines. Whereas Team A might have been a 14-point favorite in a 168-play game (last year), if there are 10 percent less snaps in 2007, the line should also be reduced by 10 percent (to 13 or 12.5). Of course, this is an over-simplification of the matter, but something to keep in mind.
Less possessions means a better chance the game will be decided by three or seven points. For example, what might have been a 20-10 final score in 2005 may end at

17-10 in 2007. Granted, a 24-17 game last year might end at 21-17 these days, but the former - a three- or seven-point advantage being preserved as opposed to created - is the most likely scenario.

*UPDATE* - Sept. 25, 2007

New Clock Rules Boon for online bookmakers

By adjusting the time-keeping rules to shorten the duration of college football games, the NCAA hoped to make its product more enjoyable for the fans. While the NCAA's success in this regard is still up for debate, bookmakers couldn't be happier with the results.

"We are seeing a massive jump in college football betting," noted the MySportsbook.com management team. "With all the early Saturday games (12 a.m. ET) ending before the second wave begins (3:30 p.m. ET) - something that didn't always happen before the changes - bettors are now able to re-invest their winnings from the morning session in the afternoon games."

While not all bettors will choose to roll over their winnings, it doesn't take much for an impact to be seen on the bottom line. "Not all of the millions of dollars in morning payouts get re-bet. In fact, it's probably only 10 to 20 percent," noted the sportsbook management team. "Still, the increased football betting lines window will create a ton of growth for us over the course of the season."

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Big Ten Conference odds

Teams that should be in: Michigan State, Indiana
Work left to do: Illinois, Purdue, Michigan, Iowa

Behind the big two, the pecking order might be in a bit of flux. Has Michigan State passed Indiana after handling the Hoosiers in East Lansing? Where is Illinois in that mix? What looked like a four-big league last week could be morphing into five -- and even six is not unthinkable at this point if everything breaks right.

Should be in:

Michigan State [21-8 (8-6), RPI: 20, SOS: 15] The Spartans made it four-for-four on the homestand, a gigantic accomplishment that leaves them in extremely good shape. MSU is only 1-6 on the road and is at Michigan and at Wisconsin to close things out, meaning the date with the Wolverines on Tuesday looms very, very large. Beating Texas early will hold up well, as will the rout of Bradley and the win over BYU, but will 8-8 be enough? It very well could be, as the computer numbers are good, but why chance it?

Indiana [18-9 (8-6), RPI: 24, SOS: 32] Hmm ... good thing the last two are at Northwestern and home to Penn State, because IU might want to get both to feel completely safe after dropping its third in the last four, fading after halftime at Michigan State. Who knew the best nonconference win would be over Southern Illinois, which is a gift that keeps on giving for the Hoosiers. The win over Wisconsin also looks good on the mantel.

Work left to do:

Illinois [21-9 (9-6), RPI: 31, SOS: 25] A good performance at Penn State leaves the Illini in pretty good shape. Can they go to Iowa and take care of business to really look on their way? That's a huge game, as there is a possible cluster of teams that will end at 9-7. Illinois beat Bradley, but has lost to Xavier. A 9-7 mark and a semifinals trip in Chicago could be enough with the computer profile hanging in there, but it would be better not to mess around, clinching at least a tie for third.

Purdue [18-10 (7-7), RPI: 47, SOS: 28] Couldn't get it done at Iowa, but did win at Northwestern to put 9-7 squarely in sight. Where does that leave the Boilermakers, though? Even if they beat Minnesota and Northwestern at home, that won't help the computer numbers. Nonconference wins over Virginia, DePaul and Oklahoma are solid, but not spectacular. The Boilers very well might need an upset in the B10 quarters to have a legit claim.

Michigan [19-10 (7-7), RPI: 55, SOS: 53] Well, Michigan did what it needed to do, winning at Minnesota to take control of its fate. The Wolverines have Michigan State and an already-wrapped-up-the-league Ohio State at home to close, so the chances are there. Win both and we can talk. There is no marquee win yet in the profile, and the Wolverines were splattered in several games against name opponents. A mediocre computer profile fueled by a lack of road wins isn't helping, either.

Iowa [16-12 (8-6), RPI: 80, SOS: 64] For the sake of being complete, we'll add Iowa, this season's Stanford. It's plausible that the Hawkeyes could get to 10-6 (at Penn State, vs. Illinois left), but where does that leave them after a gruesome nonconference performance where the best win was over ... Toledo? Iowa State? Cornell?? If they get to 10-6, we can start to look at what they need to do in the B10 tourney, although my gut sense is that they would need to make the final and have knocked off Ohio State or Wisconsin on the way to have any real claim.

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