Flyers try to continue mastery of Isles

Hockey Betting Lines

03/09/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Philadelphia Flyers will be attempting to extend their current home winning streak in tonight's matchup with a New York Islanders team they've dominated over the past few seasons from the Wachovia Center.

The Flyers have won four straight and 10 of their last 12 outings on home ice and began a four-game residency with Sunday's 3-1 decision over Toronto. Goaltender Michael Leighton stopped 27-of-28 shots in a strong effort between the pipes, while Danny Briere, Simon Gagne and Jeff Carter all scored goals to help Philadelphia halt a two-game losing streak.

Carter gave the Flyers a 1-0 lead with a power-play tally in the first period, while Gagne and Briere lit the lamp just 1:16 apart late in the second to halt a 1-1 tie. Leighton made the lead stand by making 10 saves over the final 20 minutes.

"The game wasn't pretty," said defenseman Chris Pronger, who contributed two assists on the night. "I don't know if it was a byproduct of the style that Toronto plays or a product of how we play. We rebounded in the second period. It wasn't looking very pretty the first 15 minutes, then we kind of got our legs underneath us and got going."

Mike Richards had an assist on Carter's goal and has notched at least one point in five consecutive games, with the Flyers captain compiling three goals and five assists during that span.

Philadelphia, now 19-11-2 at the Wachovia Center for the season, will also be trying to keep another impressive streak intact this evening. The Flyers have defeated the Islanders 14 straight times, the longest active stretch of victories over any single opponent in the NHL, with four of those wins having taken place in 2009-10.

New York hasn't downed Philadelphia since a 4-3 verdict at Nassau Coliseum on February 12, 2008. The Islanders' most recent triumph in the City of Brotherly Love occurred on April 7, 2007, with the club having dropped its last nine meetings as the visitor in this one-sided series.

In addition, the Islanders enter tonight's clash on a seven-game road losing streak following Thursday's 6-3 setback at Atlanta. New York followed up that performance with a 3-2 home defeat to Boston on Saturday, the team's 11th loss in its last 14 overall tests.

The Islanders outshot the Bruins by a 39-34 margin for the game, but only Josh Bailey and Matt Moulson were able to sneak the puck past Boston's Tim Thomas. Moulson's goal gave him a point in five consecutive games (2 goals, 3 assists) and was his team-best 23rd of the season.

New York fell despite a solid showing from veteran netminder Dwayne Roloson, with the 40-year-old coming through with 31 saves in a losing cause.

"We always play with a lot of energy and because of that, we had a lot of mental mistakes," said Islanders head coach Scott Gordon of the game. "It's not a physical thing. If you can skate from line to line and avoid a defenseman and then try to avoid finishing a check, it's not following through [and] you're taking the easy way out."

The Islanders' rough recent stretch has placed them 14th out of 15 Eastern Conference teams with 60 points. Philadelphia presently stands sixth in the East with 72 points, two better than seventh-place Montreal.

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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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