Jets Victory Wrap Host On Stewart

Hockey Betting Lines

Home wasn't kind to a tired Winnipeg club on Friday before the Christmas break as it dropped a 4-1 decision to Pittsburgh. The game was even heading into the third period before the Penguins scored three unanswered goals on the way to outshooting the Jets 39-19.

 

Alexander Burmistrov tallied the lone goal for the Jets, who went 3-2-1 on a six-game homestand and sit six points behind first-place Florida in the Southeast Division. Ondrej Pavelec allowed four goals on 39 shots in the loss.

 

The Avalanche's current eight-game home winning streak is the club's single- season record since moving to Denver in 1995. Following a perfect four-game homestand, Colorado visited Minnesota last night and notched a 4-2 win for a season high-tying fifth straight victory that halted a nine-game road losing streak.

 

"I think we might want to try this more often," said Avs head coach Joe Sacco.

 

The Avalanche have won two of their last three meetings with the Jets franchise, but Winnipeg has won four of its past five trips to Colorado.

 

The Blues try to knock off the rival Red Wings for a fourth straight time this evening in the first meeting between the club's this year in Detroit.

 

In the final meeting between the teams last season, St. Louis rolled into Detroit and left town with a 10-3 victory to snap a three-game series road losing streak. It marked the first time the Blues scored 10 goals in a game since Feb. 26, 1994 and they matched a club record by getting goals from nine different skaters.

 

While another 10-goal night is a lot to ask for, the Blues did notch half of that production last night in a 5-3 victory over the Stars. Stewart had a pair of goals, Evgeny Grachev scored his first career NHL goal and Adam Cracknell lit the lamp on the same day he was recalled from the minors.

 

Jaroslav Halak made 20 saves for the Blues, who have won two straight and are 7-1-1 in their past nine. They also moved to 15-3-4 under Hitchcock and have gone from 14th overall in the West to fourth in that span.

 

Cracknell was recalled to replace T.J. Oshie in the lineup, with the latter also expected to sit out tonight due to a left wrist injury.

 

Pavel Datsyuk and Danny Cleary each had a goal for the Red Wings, who halted a two-game skid and won for the sixth time in nine games.

 

The Red Wings are 6-2-0 in the front end of playing on back-to-back nets while going 4-3-0 in the second portion.

Gbrowder Hockey Betting Blog

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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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